Report into Geraldton woman Joan Hope’s death after waiting for ambulance yet to be made public

A report into the death of a Geraldton grandmother who died while waiting for an ambulance in April has yet to be made public, despite the State Government this week releasing the findings of a review into a Busselton death that occurred on the same day. Ms Hope, 80, died from a suspected heart attack on April 19. Her son called triple-0 when she started having difficulty, but paramedics did not arrive for 32 minutes. St John boss Michelle Fyfe announced a clinical inquiry into Ms Hope’s death, but Ms Hope’s daughter Michelle Groom has previously called for immediate action. “Our ambulance service needs help today, not next week — something needs to change now,” she said. Ms Groom said reviews “take too long when people are dying”. “Action needs to be taken immediately,” she said. “We don’t just have to deal with the death of our mother, we have to deal with every single one of those 32 minutes we waited for help. “That is traumatising, knowing your loved one suffered unnecessarily and you were told to wait. We were powerless to ease her distress and suffering.” When asked for an update into the review into Joan Hope’s death, a St John Ambulance spokesperson said: “We will be liaising with the family on this.” On the same day as Ms Hope’s death, another elderly woman died at Busselton Health Campus after waiting three hours for treatment. On Tuesday, Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson revealed that woman had died of a rare aneurysm — and the tragic outcome would likely have been the same regardless of her extended wait for treatment. In delivering the WA Country Health Services’ clinical incident investigation report, Ms Sanderson said the regional hospital had been experiencing record presentations with increased high-urgency patients when the woman was admitted. The woman was triaged “urgent” upon arrival — which carries a maximum waiting time of 30 minutes — but had not been treated until hours later when she rapidly deteriorated and died of a suspected heart attack. The woman attended the ED after suffering from back pain and had been able to walk around as she waited before deteriorating. “The panel noted the outcome was unlikely to have been different even if the patient had been seen immediately because this kind of aneurysm (a dissecting thoracic aortic aneurysm — a tear in the main artery of her heart that caused internal bleeding) is so serious,” Ms Sanderson said. “Overall, there are less than 40 cases across Australia each year.”