INEM opens inquiry into reasons for delay
Portugal’s national emergency institute INEM is opening an inquiry into the death of a 60-year-old man yesterday at a service station on the Via do Infante in the Algarve.
In a statement, INEM admits there was a delay in the response.
According to SIC Notícias, “shortly after getting out of his car, and still in the car park, the man who had stopped at the Olhão service area collapsed”.
Family members travelling with him, and staff at the fuel station, started calling 112 almost immediately. The first call was logged at 11.03am.
On the other end of the line manned by PSP police, they were answered only by automatic recordings. In other words, they could not get a human voice on the line, nor explain the urgency of the situation to a human being.
While they waited in absolute desperation, the family tried ‘reanimation efforts, without success’, says SIC.
According to the news site, INEM’s urgent patient guidance centre “didn’t receive the request for assistance until 11.30am”. But that doesn’t mean assistance arrived promptly afterwards. It was not until 12.08 am – more than an hour after the initial 112 calls – that an emergency and resuscitation vehicle had reached the scene, along with an ambulance from Olhão fire station, and the man was taken to Faro Hospital “on advanced life support manoeuvres”.
It is not clear from the various reports this morning, how long it was after this that death was declared
SIC’s report simply states: “The victim, aged around 60, eventually died.
“INEM admits that there was a delay in providing assistance and has already ordered the opening of an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the assistance”.
Correio da Manhã has provided the detail that the call came in from the Spain-Faro side of the A22, suggesting it is possible the victim had only just arrived in Portugal from Spain.
