Elaine Hidden died after three calls for an ambulance, inquest hears

An asthma sufferer died despite the efforts of her family who made three 999 calls for an ambulance, an inquest has heard.

Elaine Hidden husband's began CPR when she stopped breathing, prompting the last call before medics arrived.

However, medical experts told the hearing in Denbighshire that the outcome would have remained the same if paramedics had arrived earlier.

A conclusion of natural causes was reached by the coroner's court.

Assistant coroner David Lewis told the inquest in Ruthin that Mrs Hidden's family must have endured an unimaginable experience, following her collapse.

Ms Hidden, from Llangollen, died on 26 February 2018.

A post mortem examination found that she died as a result of asthma and aspiration pneumonia or the breathing in of food or liquid into the lungs, the hearing was told.

Asked by the coroner if the earlier arrival of the paramedics might have affected the outcome, consultant pathologist Dr Muhammad Aslam said he could not predict if it would have made a difference.

Colin Hidden said they had eaten at a Chinese restaurant on the weekend before she died and, the following day, she began to feel unwell.

He said his wife had declined an initial offer of an ambulance but she later collapsed.

"She'd gone downhill rapidly from talking normally to being delirious," he said.

Their daughter, Clare, called for an ambulance.

"I could see she wasn't breathing right," said Mr Hidden.

A second 999 call was made roughly 25 minutes after the first.

Mr Hidden said her condition rapidly worsened before she stopped breathing.

That was when a third 999 call was made and he started to perform CPR.

He said about 20 minutes later the police arrived to "take over from me, and then a few seconds later the ambulance arrived".

"The paramedics were amazing. I'm very appreciative of what they did for us," he said.

Gill Pleming, a call centre manager for the Welsh Ambulance Service in Llanfairfechan, Conwy county, said the first call handler was told that Ms Hidden was not conscious so it was categorised as an "amber one" call, which was deemed to be correct after an internal investigation.

Mrs Pleming confirmed that the second call was incorrectly coded - it should have been "red", classified as an immediate threat to life with an eight minute response target for 65% of calls - amber calls do not have a time target.

Dr Jonathan Whelan the Assistant Medical Director of the Welsh Ambulance Service said: "Had that second call been correctly categorised and the paramedics arrived sooner, based on the fact that Mrs Hidden suffered a cardiac arrest I don't think there's anything that could realistically have been done to save her."

Dr Barbara Philips a specialist in intensive care medicine was asked by the coroner to prepare a report on the case.

She also concluded that on the balance of probabilities the outcome would not have been any different if the ambulance had reached Mrs Hidden earlier.

Reaching his conclusion of death by natural causes, the assistant coroner paid tribute to Mrs Hidden's family.

He acknowledged that while Mrs Hidden might not have survived, a faster response from the ambulance service would have been a comfort for her family.