Deaf woman demanding change after paramedics couldn't tell her husband had died
Emily Brown
Featured Image Credit: BPM Media
A mum-of-two is calling for change after ambulance crews were unable to provide her with any information about what was going on as paramedics attempted to revive her husband.
Elizabeth Corbett was at work at the Royal School for the Deaf when she received a disturbing video call from her children, aged nine and 11, to say her husband David wouldn't wake up.
"David had been mowing the grass and had sat down for a cool drink with the children when he suddenly stopped talking," she explained.
"At first the kids thought he was joking – because he was a big joker – but then they started to panic when they couldn’t wake him up.
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"They contacted me and I told them to ring for an ambulance, while a colleague drove me home."
Elizabeth's two children performed CPR on their dad until the paramedics got there, and by the time the mum arrived, the emergency workers had already started to try and revive her husband.
She found her kids 'standing on the lawn crying', and claimed the emergency services 'wouldn't let [her] in the house', while also failing to provide her with any kind of update.
“Not one of them could communicate with me and I couldn’t explain who I was," Elizabeth said.
"I wanted to know what was happening and the police were asking me questions, but they were all wearing facemasks so I couldn’t tell what they were saying."
With no one on the scene able to help, Elizabeth called the receptionist at the school where she works and asked her to speak to the paramedics.
Following their conversation, the receptionist used British Sign Language (BSL) to tell Elizabeth that David had sadly passed away.
"I found out over FaceTime that he had gone," Elizabeth said.
The mum is now called for all emergency workers to have sign language training and a fully charged iPad which will allow them to connect instantly to a qualified interpreter.
“Once the paramedics knew I was deaf they did remove their masks but for a deaf person in such a stressful situation it was very difficult to lipread, despite their efforts," she said.
A post-mortem revealed David, who was also deaf, had suffered a heart attack after developing a blood clot.
He passed away just four days before Father’s Day last year, and five days before Elizabeth’s birthday.
Craig Whyles, divisional director for Derbyshire at East Midlands Ambulance Service, offered his condolences to David's family on behalf of the service and said they are 'deeply sorry for the poor experience they had'.
"We would like to speak to the patient’s family about their experience and urge them to get in touch with us at their earliest convenience," Whyles said in a statement.
Whyles continued: “As an organisation, we are currently working with the Nottinghamshire Deaf Society to discuss how we can improve our education to staff around deaf awareness and common emergency communication problems.
"This includes the involvement of deaf community groups in our educational training and assessments, developing awareness programmes of the deaf and deafened community and looking into the possibility of virtual interpreter apps which EMAS staff can use to connect them with an interpreter to have a conversation with a deaf patient or family user.”
Following the loss of her husband, Elizabeth is now hoping to fundraise £60,000 for the Royal School for the Deaf, which David had attended himself, to buy a specially-adapted minibus for trips and outings.
Explaining her decision, Elizabeth said: "He had loved his years at the school and especially school trips – he’d been to Denmark and done his Duke of Edinburgh – and he had made good friends there and had good memories.
"So that’s what we’re trying to do and it’s definitely helping us to deal with the hole in our lives and giving us a purpose."
You can make a donation to Elizabeth's fundraiser here.