A Northumberland man has criticised police for leaving him with the body of his wife for over six hours after she collapsed and died at their home.
Distraught Ian Johnson said his wife, Carol, collapsed in the sitting room of their house in Mayfield Avenue, Cramlington in the early hours of Sunday morning. Despite the efforts of two North East Ambulance Service crews she was pronounced dead at the scene at around 1.30am.
Ian said the ambulance crew then contacted the police to arrange for the body to be taken away. He added that officers from Northumbria Police still had not arrived by the time the second ambulance crew had to leave at 4.30am leaving his wife's body in the sitting room covered by a quilt.
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Ian said: "The police didn't arrive until 6.50am and for all that time Carol lay on the sitting room floor covered by a quilt. It was horrible and so distressing.
"Our three children were with me and every time they had to go to the kitchen or even move around they had to step over her body. It was a traumatising experience."
Ian, 60, said he and wife Carol, 77, who had dementia, had been together for 43 years and married for 40 of them and had just returned home after hospital treatment.
"The police who arrived said they had just started their shift and were told to come straight out to the house," he said. "Why was it left to the morning shift to deal with? Why didn't police on the night shift deal with it?"
He added: "If an animal was knocked down and killed the body would have been collected quicker than this. There should be a rule that if this happens the body has to be removed within an hour.
"By the time the police arrived and my wife's body was taken away it was 8am. She'd been left lying in the sitting room covered by a quilt for all that time. It made an already distressing situation worse."
A Northumbria Police spokesperson said: “First and foremost, our thoughts are with the family and loved one’s of the deceased at this time.
“We can confirm that shortly before 2am on Sunday (May 15), we were contacted by the ambulance service who were in attendance at a sudden death at an address in Cramlington. Paramedics left the address shortly after 4.30am and officers arrived at about 6.45am.
“In a case of a non-suspicious sudden death, we always endeavour to attend the address as quickly as operationally possible.”
A statement from the North East Ambulance Service said: “We were called to a medical incident at a private address in Mayfield Avenue at 1.06am on Sunday. We dispatched two ambulance crews, arriving at 1.11am and 1.26am, and clearing at 2.31am and 4.34am.”
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