A PARAMEDIC who suspected that a patient was suffering from sepsis and a “high risk” said he was shocked to be told that she would not be admitted immediately to hospital .

Instead Samantha Brousas was kept waiting in an ambulance outside the Maelor Hospital, Wrexham, for over two hours, and died less than 48 hours later.

Steffan Jarvis told an inquest in Ruthin he was aware that sepsis was time-critical and that patients should receive antibiotics within an hour.

Patients kept waiting outside hospital should also be triaged within half-an-hour.

On the second day of the hearing into the death of the 49-year-old Mr Jarvis said that he and his colleague, who went to her home in Bryn-y-Groes, Gresford, on February 21 last year, agreed that she was probably suffering from sepsis.

When the ambulance arrived at the hospital, however, there were already two or three ambulances waiting outside and nurse-in-charge Karen Davies said there were no beds available.

The previous day Miss Brousas had been diagnosed by her GP as having gastro-enteritis or gastric flu, and Nurse Davies said the high NEWS score was consistent with that illness.

Mr Jarvis said that when he told her they suspected Miss Brousas had sepsis she was dismissive, merely explaining that there was no bed available.

“She didn’t seem to believe it was sepsis,” he said. “I was quite shocked.”

Mr Jarvis asked Fiona Lambert, the Hospital Ambulance Liaison Officer (HALO), to pursue the matter before his shift finished at 7.10pm.

Questioned by Joanne Lees, assistant coroner for North Wales East and Central, why he hadn’t pre-alerted the hospital as they were en-route, as should have happened under the guidelines, Mr Jarvis accepted that he should have done.

Mrs Davies told the coroner: “We were in escalation, when you have used up your resources, all your beds are taken....ambulances waiting outside.”

After the situation was reported, she said: “There was no response, no management came to the department.”

The inquest had been told Miss Brousas had been unwell since early January, 2018, and unable to shake off a cough, but her condition had deteriorated over the last few days.

The hearing continues.