Three-day-old baby died after she stopped breathing… and an ambulance took more than 30 minutes to arrive

An Oxford family was forced to give a dying baby CPR in a desperate bid to save her life because an ambulance took ove 30 minutes to arrive, an inquest will hear.

Wyllow-Raine Swinburn, just three-days-old, was pronounced dead five minutes after arriving at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital in the early hours of September 30 last year.

Her mother, Amelia Pill, had called an ambulance after noticing that her daughter was ‘stone cold’. 

But it took seven minutes for an operator to connect the call to the ambulance service, and a further 24 minutes before the paramedics arrived. 

A previous inquest heard that Ms Pill screamed, ‘no one’s coming, no one’s coming…why aren’t they answering the f***ing phone’, as she sat on hold. 

Ms Pill’s brother attempted CPR on the infant and recalled noticing a disturbing change in her skin, ‘like when you get a bruise’, an earlier inquest heard. 

While a pathologist judged the death to be ‘likely due to natural causes’, lawyers representing the family argued that Wyllow-Raine may have had the early signs of diabetes. 

Senior Coroner Darren Salter adjourned an earlier inquest in June to allow for further evidence to be gathered.

An initial hearing for the second part of the inquest will take place at Oxford Coroners Court today.

Wyllow-Raine was born weighing 10 pounds and five ounces via a caesarean section on September 27 2022.

She and her mother were discharged on the evening of September 29. The baby collapsed in the early hours of September 30.

Amelia Pill called an ambulance at 4.38am after trying to breastfeed her baby and noticing that her face was stone cold.

Karen Sillicorn-Aston, clinical governance lead for the South Central Ambulance Service, told the court the 999 call was made at 4.38am and was connected five minutes later.

It was connected by a BT operator whose job it is to listen in to all calls before they are answered.

Her family spent 40 minutes giving her CPR as they waited for paramedics at their home, Oxford Coroners Court was told in 2023

Sillicorn-Aston said rules state the BT operator should pass the call to another service, which in this case was the East of England Ambulance Service.

The family remained on the line for two further minutes before the call was picked up.

The closest ambulance, which was 20 to 25 minutes away, was dispatched but a closer one was later found and sent instead. 

However, an ambulance did not arrive at the family home until 5.09am, over 30 minutes after the call was made.

By the time the ambulance arrived, the baby’s body temperature had fallen to 30.8C despite the room temperature being normal before she collapsed, the hearing was told.

Wyllow-Raine was taken to John Radcliffe Hospital where she was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival. 

Pathologist Dr Darren Fowler told the hearing the baby’s cause of death was ‘more likely than not’ to have been natural.

However, he said he was not the most qualified person to answer questions about whether she would have survived if an ambulance had arrived sooner.

The previous hearing was told the baby appeared to be healthy when it was discharged from hospital, but lawyers for the family raised concerns that she may have had diabetes that had gone unnoticed by doctors as ambulance service records revealed she had ‘very low’ blood glucose levels.

The newborn’s grandmother told the hearing the baby was crying with a fever when she was taken to bed at the family home in Didcot, Oxfordshire at around midnight.

The full inquest is due to be resumed on 2-3 December 2024.