A 36-year-old black woman was reported dead at her flat in South London of a suspected coronavirus after being told she’s not a priority.
Kayla Williams, a mother of three, died a day after paramedics were called to her home in Peckham but without response until her death, according to The Guardian report.
Meanwhile, her husband, Fabian Williams, who is a refuse collector, revealed his wife was suffering from a cough, stomach and chest pain, and a high fever. But when he called 999 to report the situation, he was told to look after her at home.
Williams said: “I called 999 because my wife was breathless, she was vomiting and she had pains in her stomach. As I was talking to them, she was getting worse, and they told me to put her on the floor and to make her body flat.”
Later, when the paramedic came at 8:32 am, she carried out some tests, William said. “She told me the hospital won’t take her; she is not a priority. She did not stay very long, and she went outside to write her report and posted it through the door.”
Moreover, Kayla began to feel worse the next day as the husband fixed her up and got her to eat. But on checking up on her after taking some rest himself, the husband found her slumped head down. “She was already dead,” he said. “I put her on the ground – because that is what they had told me to do before – and I rang 999 again, and they told me to put my hand on her chest and pump her chest.”
According to Williams, three cars and an ambulance came to his house later but the crew was not successful in their attempt to revive his wife. Also, he said the police visited but refused to enter his flat: “They stood on the doorstep and would not come in when I asked them to,” he said. They were followed an hour later by a funeral director; he continued: “They put on full forensic suits outside, with full masks, visors, and gloves. They covered their feet as well. This was when I thought, ‘What’s going on? This is not right.”
Furthermore, Williams said the crew took all the procedures required in an infectious disease death to evacuate his wife. But equally admitted that no one mentioned anything about his wife to him, saying that all they told him to do is to isolate.
Finally, a spokesperson for the London ambulance service said: “We were called at 8.32 am on Friday 20 March to reports of a person unwell at an address in Peckham. Our clinicians treated a patient and advised them to call back if their condition changed.”
He continued: “We were called the following day at 3.24 pm and sent a number of resources, with our first medics arriving in under seven minutes. Sadly, the patient had died. Our sympathy is with the family at this time.”
“We are working incredibly hard in these unprecedented times to look after Londoners,” he added.
