The First Minister has apologised to a young footballer after she faced a five-hour wait for an ambulance having broken her leg in two places.
Brooke Paterson, centre-back for Linlithgow Rose Ladies FC, was seriously injured during the away clash against Cumbernauld United at the weekend.
The 19-year-old heard her leg snap and was left lying on the pitch waiting for paramedics to arrive despite a number of increasingly desperate 999 calls. She has since undergone surgery at Forth Valley Hospital.
Her case, highlighted by the Daily Mail, was raised at Holyrood by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar during FMQ’s and John Swinney said her case had not been given the ‘priority it should have had’.
He said: ‘That is not acceptable.
“I apologise to Brooke Paterson.
“I’ve read the story this morning about the issue, I regret very much the experience Brooke has had.
“It looks to me as if an error was made in the classification of this particular call, which has not had the priority that it should have had.
“That’s what it looks like based on the limited time this morning I have had to look at that.
“We have to look into whether that is the case and whether there are other steps that need to be taken to remedy that.
The First Minister apologised to Brooke after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar brought up her case
Brooke Paterson, centre-back for Linlithgow Rose Ladies FC, endured a ‘horrific’ and ‘unacceptable’ wait for an ambulance after breaking her leg in a game
The young footballer had to be covered in coats and blankets to keep her warm while she waited several hours in falling temperatures for an ambulance
The Scottish Ambulance Service have also apologised for the incident.
Paul Hopwood, Brooke’s head coach, described the experience as ‘extremely traumatic and completely unacceptable’.
He said numerous calls were made to the emergency services, but it wasn’t until after dark that an ambulance turned up. Players, parents and staff were horrified by the length of the delay.
The coach said: ‘Brooke and another player went in for a 50-50 challenge which we have no issue with whatsoever. Unfortunately, our player came off worse, but it could easily have been the other way around.
Unfortunately, our player came off worse, but it could easily have been the other way around.
An X-ray showed she had broken two bones in her leg in the mid-game injury
Ms Paterson lies on a hospital trolley with her leg in a cast after the horror injury
Doctors had to insert pins in Ms Paterson’s bone following the break
‘However, it was clear when she went down that there was a serious problem.
At one point, an emergency call handler even spoke to Ms Paterson to confirm who she was and how much pain she was in.
Sunday’s League Cup match had kicked off at 2pm in the Dunbartonshire town, but Mr Hopwood said it took until around 8pm for an ambulance to arrive.
With the match abandoned, Ms Paterson was left immobile on the damp pitch, with a pile of coats and foil blankets over her in an attempt to keep her warm.
Eventually, a doctor of another Cumbernauld team, alerted by the chairman of the home side, arrived to offer help.
Ms Paterson underwent surgery to repair a broken fibula and tibia – the two bones of the lower leg – and is now recovering in hospital.
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said this week: ‘We would like to sincerely apologise to Ms Paterson for the delay in the ambulance response and for any distress caused.’
