The caffeine overdose death of an aspiring cancer researcher who waited more than seven hours for an ambulance was preventable, a coroner has found.
She died alone in her bathroom.
He mentioned that she might have survived the overdose; however, determining exactly when her death could have been avoided was challenging due to limited information on the timing and quantity of caffeine Lackmann consumed.
The coroner criticized Ambulance Victoria for their inadequate care, highlighting the “unacceptable” wait time since over 80 percent of their ambulances were backed up at busy hospitals, unable to attend to emergencies the night she passed away.
Ambulance Victoria undertook an internal review and has made changes to its systems.
Efforts are underway with the health department to minimize ambulance ramping, a situation where paramedics are forced to wait to transfer patients outside overcrowded emergency units.
Victoria’s statewide benchmark is for 90 per cent of ambulance patients to be transferred to emergency care within 40 minutes of arrival.
However, latest statewide data showed 69.6 per cent of ambulance patients were admitted to an emergency department within 40 minutes.
The median wait time in March was 26 minutes.
Hospitals have been required to deliver a four per cent improvement in ambulance offload times by the end of June under emergency department standards to reduce ramping.
