Ambulance shortage blamed for man’s death

A man died from cardiac arrest Monday night after being misled about the availability of ambulances at a hospital, reports local media.

The three ambulances at Seenu Hithadhoo Regional Hospital on Hithadhoo island, Seenu atoll, are currently out of service, an official confirmed to Vnews.

The patient was not informed of the shortage when he called for an ambulance and waited for one to arrive.  A private car took him to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Speaking to Vnews, a source said the patient had experienced breathing difficulties while exercising at a friend’s house and had requested an ambulance from the hospital.

The hospital said it would arrive, but the delay led him to use a private car. He died en route from a heart attack according to doctors.

“When they first called, the hospital didn’t say the ambulance was out of service,” said the source. “If they’d said so we could have arranged a different way of getting there, right?

“We called the ambulance because it has oxygen and everything else. And yet it didn’t come for a long time. At last we went to the hospital in a private car, and found out the ambulance was out of service.”

A hospital official called the event “tragic” and said the patient had a history of heart issues, Vnews reported.

In a separate incident, a young man died at Kulhudhuffushi Regional Hospital while being treated for the onset of paralysis as he was playing football at Haa Dhaal Nolhivaranfaru. The cause of death is not clear.

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