A caring dad died on Christmas Eve despite making repeated 999 calls begging for help. Iqbal Rahman, 58, felt “nobody was coming to help him” as his health deteriorated, his daughter has said.
Iqbal died just hours before Christmas despite the family making three 999 calls asking for help. Minnie, 34, has refused to blame NHS staff, saying: “The Government created this situation."
The Mirror reports that the family raised the alarm at around 7.07pm after the dad and grandfather took ill. West Midlands Ambulance Service initially triaged Iqbal as a category 5 case, requiring a callback with advice from a paramedic or nurse.
As his condition deteriorated his family made a second 999 call 40 minutes later as they failed in their desperate attempt to lift him into a car to take him to the hospital themselves. Emergency services flagged the case as a category 2 and an ambulance was dispatched but was diverted to a higher priority call.
Iqbal had stopped breathing by the time the family rang for a third time at 8.04pm. An ambulance arrived at 8.28pm with paramedics attempting to revive the much-loved dad for over 90 minutes with no success.
Daughter Minnie said: “My dad felt in his final hours that nobody was coming to help him, it’s really difficult for me and my family to live with.” But Minnie does not hold the ambulance service or NHS responsible – instead she blames years of Government underfunding.
As Prime Minister Rishi Sunak admitted “patients aren’t receiving the care they deserve”, Minnie said: “The Government has created a situation in which it is impossible for healthcare professionals to provide the care they are trained to give.”
Minnie blasted Sunak's claims that the government is taking “urgent action” to tackle “challenges in A&E”, stating: "It is clearly not enough. At this point the Tories cannot be trusted. For 13 years they’ve underfunded and privatised the NHS, leaving it in this disastrous state.
“They’re too far late for the many of us grieving loved ones who didn’t get help when we needed it. I don’t think any of my family ever thought that if you call the ambulance they won’t come when it’s that bad. And it was that bad – Dad died. My mum is just devastated”
A WMAS spokeswoman said: “We would like to apologise to the Rahman family for the delayed response and offer our condolences. At the time of the call, the Trust was experiencing long hospital handover delays.”
Iqbal had been due to spend Christmas at an Airbnb in Hereford with Minnie’s mum Samina, 58, her sister Sana, 36, and Sana’s children. Shortly after arriving he started feeling poorly.
His wife Samina, who works as a speech therapist for the NHS, became concerned that he was suffering from heart problems. Minnie, a consultant, said: “He was complaining of extreme shoulder pain, had a very high temperature and was excessively sweating. It was first advised that it could be due to his diabetes. It wasn’t until his breathing stopped that paramedics were sent.”
Paying tribute to her caring father Minnie said: “He was extremely caring and funny, quite silly. It should not have been my dad who died in this way and it shouldn’t be anybody else’s.”
Minnie said her father’s death was also “heartbreaking” for paramedics: “They should be getting to people at a stage where they can help. How many families will be traumatised before the Government does what it has to do and funds the NHS properly?”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
