HSE rejects 45-minute ambulance delay claims

The HSE has rejected reports that it took 45 minutes to get an ambulance to a Cork schoolboy who died after being pulled from a flooded river.

Seven-year-old James Casey Butler fell into the Owenacurra river in Midleton, Co Cork, on Saturday while playing with friends. He was swept about 275m downstream and was in the water for several minutes. He died at Crumlin Children’s Hospital in Dublin on Sunday after being transferred from Cork.

The HSE also rejected as incorrect reports that the ambulance which attended the scene had travelled from Fermoy. An advance paramedic was on the scene within seven minutes and an ambulance arrived 19 minutes after James had fallen into the river, the HSE said.