Pregnant wife of man who died after motorbike crash in Esh Winning says ambulance service failed him
The pregnant wife of a man who was killed in a crash last week has said the ambulance service failed him after taking almost an hour to arrive.
Aaron Morris, 31, was riding his motorcycle when he was involved in a crash on Priestburn Close, in Esh Winning, County Durham, on Friday 1 July.
The father-of-three, who recently learnt his wife Sam Morris was expecting twins, was seriously injured in the crash and later died in hospital.
His 28-year-old widow has criticised the response time of the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS), and believes her husband's death could have been prevented if the ambulance had arrived earlier.
The student nurse was the second person on the scene and looked after her husband until paramedics arrived.
The North East Ambulance Service said an internal review has been launched.
Mrs Morris said: "Every single person who was on scene from the local community would not have suspected Aaron to die that day, especially not me.
"If I knew he was going to die I wouldn't have been running for equipment, I would have been holding his hand and comforting him.
"I didn't comfort my husband because I was too busy trying to do the jobs of the paramedics that never came."
Mr Morris was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham but died several hours later.
His wife added: "I don't blame the paramedic that came, I don't blame the doctors that did everything they possibly could, or the nurses.
"There was some fault in the handling of all the calls that went through to NEAS that day."
NEAS has apologised to the Morris family for the "additional distress", admitting its response was outside of its target time.
Dr Mathew Beattie, medical director for NEAS, said: "Our response was 50 minutes against a standard where nine out of ten responses should arrive within 40 minutes.
"For that we extend our apologies for the additional distress this must have caused in an already tragic situation.
“We are carrying out an internal review to see if there were any missed opportunities to respond quicker and this will be shared with the coroner.
"It has been widely reported that ambulance services across the country are struggling to meet response standards due to significant pressures across the NHS, but I can reassure you that we are working closely with our system partners to do everything possible to reach patients as quickly as we can.”
Mrs Morris added: "All I hope is that this never ever happens to anyone again.
"I understand that services are under pressure, but there's no excuse to leave a man dying on the road for that length of time."
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