Paramedic who failed to provide life support to County Durham teenager struck off

A paramedic who failed to give life support to a teenager who took her own life has been struck off.

Emergency services were called to Shildon in County Durham, on 9 December, 2018 to treat 17-year-old Quinn Evie Milburn-Beadle.

Operational paramedic Gavin Wood, from the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS), who responded to the incident, has been facing a tribunal after concerns were raised.

Mr Wood travelled to the scene in a rapid response vehicle. When he arrived, two police officers were already providing the 17-year-old with CPR. By the time a community paramedic and a respondent crew arrived, Mr Wood had made the decision to stop CPR and declared her deceased.

Following the incident, a clinician raised concerns that Mr Wood had not completed everything that he should have done with regards to treatment.

A Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) panel decided his fitness to practice was impaired and his actions amounted to misconduct.

The paramedic has now been struck off by the HCPTS panel.

Chairwoman of the panel Janet Fisher said: "The direction of the panel is the registrar is directed to strike the name of Gavin Wood from the register from the date this order comes into affect."

Allegations that Mr Wood did not follow North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust guidance and/or Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee Guidelines were found proven by the panel.

This included not taking a 30 second electrocardiogram examination prior to declaring recognition of life extinct, not applying an automated external defibrillator, and not continuing resuscitation efforts for a minimum period of 20 minutes.

The panel also found allegations Mr Wood's had stated to a colleague that an electrocardiogram had indicated Miss Beadle was asystolic (a type of cardiac arrest when your heart stops beating entirely), when he had not undertaken an electrocardiogram examination, were proven.

A number of allegations were also found not proven by the panel which included not saving defibrillator data to the Cloud and/or electronic patient care report, stating to colleagues the Zoll defibrillator was unable to print when this was not the case.

Allegations about posting a series of comments on Facebook that breached the NEAS NHS Foundation Trust social media policy were also not proven.

Stephen Segasby, chief operating officer for North East Ambulance Service, said: “Gavin Wood is no longer employed by the North East Ambulance Service.

"The HCPC has concluded that the level of care he provided fell short of what patients and their loved ones should be able to rely upon, and what we expect of paramedics in our organisation.

“We would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to Quinn’s family for their loss."

Following Quinn's death, her parents Tracey and David Beadle set up a charity in her name to offer a retreat for the families of people who have taken their own lives.

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