Failure to CommunicateAn 82-year-old hero from World War II died in Glasgow, Scotland because of rules prohibiting dispatchers from notifying an ambulance crew that was 500-yards away. The Daily Record reports former British soldier Ernie Rutkiewicz choked to death as his daughter frantically begged for help.
An ambulance crew was on meal break nearby, but government rules prohibit them from being disturbed and in fact they do not even show up as available on the dispatchers’ computers. So it took 22 minutes for help to arrive and by then it was too late.
The Scottish Ambulance Service has launched an investigation and Rutkiewicz’s daughter says she may sue.
At the bizarre end of the publicity scale is MC Nuts, a life-sized red squirrel who raps Wordsworth to entice visitors to the Lake District.
Hey! My campaign got a mention in The Telegraph!
Boy, I want that level of government-run health care! The DMV needs the competition when it comes to stellar customer service…
It’s important to have rules. A guy might miss his break otherwise.
Hey, if they called that crew, its driver might have had to wolf down his eel pie or his spotted dick, and then he’d be choking to death.
EUnuchstan is funny.
My buddy was in Germany on a bus when it pulled over and the driver started eating. There were other passengers and they just seemed to take it in stride so he asked the driver what the deal was. It was his gov’t mandated break.
Not quite the same thing, but still.
And a truly excellent photo choice if you need a picture of a picnic of death…