HSE facing legal threat over cot death

A Polish couple who lost a baby due to cot death have threatened legal action against the HSE over delays in an ambulance getting to their home in Tralee, Co Kerry.

It took 45 minutes for an ambulance to reach the home of Sebastian and Katarzyan Chlamtacz, after one was sent to the Tennis Village in Cork instead of the Tennis Village in Tralee on June 18, 2013.

Efforts to resuscitate their three-week-old baby boy, Morfeusz, failed, according to a report in Kerry’s Eye newspaper.

An inquest in Tralee was told by State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster, who carried out an autopsy, there was no definitive cause of death, but death was attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) — also known as cot death.

The prospect of legal action emerged at the inquest. Coroner Helen Lucey would not allow any questioning into ambulance delay, but said emergency services should use their best endeavours to ensure they could get to the precise location when contacted by people who were clearly upset, or where there was a language barrier.

Ms Lucey said the role of the inquest was to determine where, when and how a person died. The National Ambulance Service said at the time that the mother’s traumatised state and her poor English resulted in ambulances being sent to the wrong address. In a statement at the inquest, Ms Chlamtacz said at 1.05am she dialled 112 looking for an ambulance after she woke up to find her baby not moving and a little cool.

She said she did not think the operator understood. She was upset and gave the address as 15 Tennis Village, Tralee, and tried to resuscitate the baby. The ambulance arrived at her house at 1.50am.

The baby arrived at the hospital at 2.05am and was pronounced dead at 2.45am.