Delayed ambulance leaves family reeling
The mugging, which took place in January, might have ended differently had the state ambulance service not taken three hours to arrive at the scene, according to the victim's brother.
The family of a deceased Pretoria resident continue to grieve his death months after he was fatally stabbed during a mugging in Pretoria West.
Peter Allen Mellors passed away on January 21.
His brother, Kevin, told Rekord that the loss has been particularly painful given how preventable Peter’s death could have been, had the Gauteng Emergency Medical Services (EMS) responded timeously to the incident.
Kevin alleged that the call to EMS was made at 19:10, with ambulance services only arriving three hours later to transport Peter to the hospital. It is also alleged that several other passers-by made numerous calls to Gauteng EMS.
“Around 19:50, the first responder, a breakdown driver, arrived on scene, followed by the police, who arrived just after 21:00, and then at 22:00, Peter was pronounced dead on the scene, and later taken to the mortuary,” explained Kevin.
Kevin said the incident highlighted a serious concern regarding the response time of state ambulance services.
He claimed that delays in emergency medical assistance cost lives, and urgent solutions are needed to improve pedestrian safety in the community.
“This issue could have been prevented, and more issues like it can be prevented again by calling out bad service.
“It could have happened to anyone in this world and we need to make it unfeasible to happen to anyone else. Any and everybody is entitled to emergency medical services; we don’t need this happening,” Kevin said.
The SAPS confirmed that a case of murder was opened regarding the incident and is currently under investigation.
Rekord has attempted on numerous occasions to get answers from the Gauteng Provincial Government Ambulance Services, but they have failed to respond to requests for comment.
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