Pregnant woman forced to direct ‘lost’ ambulance driving dying husband

The pregnant wife of an injured man in the back of an ambulance helped direct paramedics to the nearest hospital, an inquest has heard.

Aaron Morris, 31, had suffered leg and chest injuries after he was involved in a motorbike collision in County Durham on July 1, 2022.

After it took nearly an hour for paramedics to arrive on scene, and an inquest at County Durham and Darlington Coroner’s Court heard paramedics David Robinson and Andrew Fyfe were not ‘familiar’ with the area as they were both based north of the River Tyne.

Aaron’s pregnant wife, who helped direct them to the hospital, said she didn’t blame the paramedics for the tragedy.

Andrew, the paramedic who responded to the incident, told the inquest Aaron’s chest was ‘clearly badly injured’ and added: ‘He was crying out in pain. I was concerned that he would die right there and then on the ground.’

Aaron suffered a cardiac arrest in the back of the ambulance and died in hospital later that day.

Aaron’s pregnant wife, Samantha Morris, helped give directions to the paramedics as the ambulance was being escorted by police to Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI).

When Aaron went into cardiac arrest, driver David was instructed by Andrew to divert to the nearest hospital, University Hospital of North Durham (UHND).

The inquest was told David relied on directions from Aaron’s wife, when he could have re-routed the navigation system in the ambulance -= though this would have required the vehicle to pull over and added extra time to the journey.

David told the inquest: ‘I seem to recall asking Samantha if [UHND] was far from where we were, because I wasn’t familiar with the area. At that point Samantha offered to direct me.

‘We were heading towards the RVI at that point so Durham Hospital was in the opposite direction. I had to turn the ambulance around at that point and Samantha did a fantastic job of directing me until the police escort took over again.’

Samantha, who was 13 weeks pregnant at the time of the incident, told the inquest that she doesn’t fault the driver for asking for directions but felt that the driver should have been given the tools to know where the nearest hospital is.

She said she directed the ambulance until they reached the fire station close to UHND.

An investigation following a complaint to North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) from Samantha after the incident concluded that the driver of the third party ambulance, Ambulanz, was correct to ask for directions in the circumstances.

The inquest also heard written evidence from a NEAS clinical team leader who did a welfare check on the crew at the hospital following the call.