Newly-toddling youngster Aiden McLaughlin slipped on to a bolt and gashed open his head, revealing his skull
View gallery Aiden McLaughlin and parents
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Parents of a toddler who sliced his head open to the skull say they waited more than an hour for an ambulance to arrive.
Middlesbrough tot Aiden McLaughlin enjoying a trip to Crimdon Dene Holiday Park, near Hartlepool, to celebrate his progress after being born premature at just 24 weeks.
The 20-month-old’s family had gone to the bar to watch the in-house entertainment when the newly-toddling youngster slipped on to a bolt and gashed open his head, revealing his skull.
Staff immediately rang an ambulance at about 8pm but, despite three calls checking on its progress while Aiden slipped in and out of consciousness, it took about an hour and 15 minutes to arrive at the caravan park last Tuesday, March 25, say his mum and dad.
“We’re appalled,” says Sean.
“After Aiden came off his oxygen machines we thought we’d take him on a little holiday and Crimdon is only a half an hour away from home.
“On the second night we thought we’d see what entertainment was on.
“But Aiden slipped and cut his head on a bolt on the stage.
“He started screaming and his mum Kelly picked him up.
“You could see his skull it was that deep.”
The parents bandaged his head with his uncle’s T-shirt to stem the blood pouring from the wound while an employee called the ambulance.
Sean, 30, a full-time carer for Aiden, who lives in the West Lane area of Middlesbrough, said: “We phoned them on three separate occasions, asking where the ambulance was.
“We were thinking ‘how long is this ambulance going to be?’
“I even offered to take him in the car and drive the half an hour to Stockton’s University Hospital of North Tees.
“But we were advised not to in case anything happened on the way and to stay where we were.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening.”
They claim the ambulance arrived at about 9.15pm and his mum Kelly, 30, also a full-time carer for Aiden, accompanied him to Accident and Emergency at North Tees, with his dad following in the car.
After doctors cleaned the injury and stuck the gaping wound together with Steri-Strips - a kind of adhesive stitch - Aiden was discharged and referred to Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital the following morning for advice on plastic surgery.
As an operation would set back Aiden’s progress - and mean he may have to return to using an oxygen machine - his parents have decided that they will not go ahead with plastic surgery for Aiden at this point, meaning that he will be left with a scar.
Sean said: “He’s been quite quiet since the accident and he’s not been walking as much as he’s scared.
“It has put him back a little bit.”
Dad Sean added: “For me any 20- month-old should not have to wait over an hour for an ambulance - particularly when they have a cut on their head so severe that they could see his skull.”
Ambulance responses are categorised between life-threatening “red” incidents, which crews should attend within eight minutes or “green” incidents, which should be reached between 20 minutes to an hour.
A spokeswoman for the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are aware of the complaint and we are looking into it.”
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