A mother and her 18-year-old daughter were found dead in their home nearly four months after the mom requested an ambulance that never came. Police found 47-year-old Alphonsine Djiako Leuga and her daughter Loraine Choulla dead on May 21, 2024, in their U.K. home in Radford, Nottingham, the BBC reported.
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Ambulance Failed To Arrive For Mother And Daughter Who Died In Home
The hearing into the investigation of their tragic deaths began on Monday, July 21. Police believed the two had been dead for “weeks or months” before someone finally raised concerns for their welfare.
Leuga had called an ambulance on February 2 last year. The mother reported that she couldn’t move and she was cold. Despite her plea for help, nobody responded to the call.
Dr. Stuart Hamilton, a pathologist, stated that the mom died due to pneumonia. They had yet to ascertain the daughter’s cause of death, but they knew that Choulla was “entirely dependent” on her mother. She had Down’s syndrome and other learning disabilities.
Hamilton couldn’t rule out the possibility that Leuga died the same day she called for an ambulance. A few weeks prior, on January 26, Leuga was hospitalized with a lower respiratory tract infection. Due to her low iron levels, she required blood transfusions.
Although the hospital allegedly wanted Leuga to stay hospitalized longer, they discharged her “pragmatically” two days later. She had to return to her daughter to make sure she could take care of her.
Tragically, this may have been a factor in her death. Leuga was meant to return to the hospital the following day, but she didn’t come back. The hospital and her general practitioner allegedly failed to get in contact with her.
How A “Missed Opportunity” Cost Two Lives
The emergency call’s transcript described how the mother requested help for both her and her daughter. On the other end, the dispatcher asked Leuga repeatedly for what language she spoke.
Although they also asked if she needed an interpreter, Leuga ignored the questions. Still, she managed to give the dispatcher her address and requested an ambulance.
“Would you send an ambulance?” asked Leuga. “Please come, please.” Those were the last words she said on the call before it ended.
So why didn’t any ambulance arrive at her residence? According to Susan Jevons, the head of a coroner’s service and a paramedic, dispatchers attempted to call back Leuga but failed to get an answer.
“The ambulance didn’t go to the address because the emergency medical advisor, thinking it was an abandoned call, closed the call down,” said Jevons. She admitted that this should never have happened since they had all the information they needed.
Jevons apologized on behalf of East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) for “all of the errors” it made. Investigators eventually discovered there was a “missed opportunity” for an ambulance to arrive that day.
An inquest is currently investigating how the mother and daughter exactly died. This will determine who died first and if there was time to save either woman.