Overview
- The coroner concluded on Friday that delays by the North East Ambulance Service helped cause Andrew Watson’s death from airway obstruction by quinsy in October 2019.
- Andrew waited 67 minutes for paramedics after being told an ambulance would arrive within 18 minutes, and expert evidence said reaching hospital 10 to 20 minutes earlier could have made survival likely.
- Paramedics who attended said the death was preventable and argued inside NEAS that the case should have been graded at the highest harm level.
- NEAS staff told the inquest they felt pressure during internal reviews to reduce the harm grading and one manager said decisions appeared to be driven toward a predetermined outcome.
- The family, who only learned of undisclosed NEAS investigations in 2023 and had the original 2020 verdict quashed, received an apology and hope the coroner’s prevention-of-future-deaths report will prompt changes to triage rules and investigatory governance.