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1 year ago
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A Current Affair host Ally Langdon has broken down in tears during a heartbreaking interview with the sister of a woman who tragically died while waiting for an ambulance.
Cath Groom, 51, called emergency services just before 10.30pm on Friday after experiencing chest pains and was deemed an urgent code one, meaning an ambulance should have arrived at her Brisbane home within 15 minutes.
Despite numerous calls to 000, an 'exhausted' Ms Groom waited 90 minutes before she cancelled the request and decided to go to sleep, hoping her symptoms would subside.
The following morning Ms Groom's son, Nicholas, 18, made the horrific discovery that she had died in bed.
On Wednesday evening, Langdon spoke to Ms Groom's sister, Bec McQuilty, who detailed the nightmare 24 hours in which they went from watching Nicholas graduate high school to finding her dead.
The host broke down as Ms McQuilty described how her sister was found by her only child on her 52nd birthday.
'I just think this hurts all of us hearing this,' Langdon said fighting through tears.
Ms McQuilty explained how she had rushed over to her sister's the house on Saturday morning after getting a distressing call from Nicholas.
'That scene no doubt will haunt you for a long time,' Langdon said.
'To be honest with you I think its something that Nicholas and I will never, ever forget,' Ms McQuilty replied.
Cath Groom (pictured right with sister Bec McQuilty), 51, died on the weekend after waiting for an ambulance that never arrived
Ms McQuilty said she was having difficulty coming to terms with what had happened.
'Its just incomprehensible. I'm numb, I'm sad, I'm devastated', she said
Ms McQuilty explained that Nicholas had graduated from high school on the Friday.
'He's gone from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in the space of 24 hours,' she said
'He's been taught all his life that you can rely on these people and to make a call to 000 and them not be there for him when they should have been is blatant neglect'.
Ms McQuilty said the 'hardest thing' was watching how the death had affected their mother, who was taken to the emergency department on Saturday in 'complete shock'.
'She'll never come back from this,' Ms McQuilty said.
'No family should ever ever have to go through what our family has gone through.'
Again fighting back tears, Langdon asked Ms McQuilty how she could reconcile with the fact that an ambulance never arrived.
'You don't,' Ms McQuilty replied.
'There is no excuse, there is no reasoning it.'
Ms McQuilty said she was having trouble coming to terms with her sister's tragic death
Host Ally Langdon was reduced to tears while interviewing Ms McQuilty on Wednesday night
On Tuesday night, Langdon grilled a senior minister and health official over the shocking incident.
Langdon labelled the 'avoidable tragedy' a 'disgrace' in a tense interview with Heath Minister Shannon Fentiman and Commissioner of the Queensland Ambulance Service, Craig Emery.
'What happened is unacceptable, and that Cath Groom is no longer with us and her son no longer has a mum is a disgrace,' she said.
Ms McQuilty said it did not bring her any comfort that the minister and commissioner had expressed their sympathies with the family.
'It's just simply not good enough,' she said.
Ms Groom had raised her son Nicholas as a single mother after losing her husband 18 years ago
Ms Groom had been raising her son on her own after her husband also tragically died 18 years ago - just a month after their son was born.
Her friends and family took to social media to pay tribute to an 'amazing and genuine woman taken far too soon'.
'Rest In Peace Sis, may you rest easy now with Dad and your life's love and husband,' Ms Groom's sister wrote on Facebook.
'Cath you're an amazing mother, woman and friend. Heaven is a greater place for having you,' a friend wrote.
Queensland Ambulance Services (QAS) is conducting a review into how cases like Ms Groom's fall down the priority line despite the urgency of their requests.
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