Newborn Dies After Emergency Services Refuse To Dispatch Lifesavers As It Could Be 'Traumatic'

A newborn baby died in Scotland after authorities refused to dispatch a first responder to help the child as they thought it would be "too traumatic" for the officer.

The incident took place last year at a home in Anstruther, Fife. Megan Thrupp and her partner, Kris Low, recently learned that a first responder was available near their home when they called the emergency services but the officer was not sent to the location as the incident involved a baby. Authorities told the parents that trained volunteers or "community lifesavers" in Scotland are not sent to cases involving children as the deaths could be too traumatic for them to deal with, 7News reported.

The parents said the life of their 19-day-old baby, Eva, could have been saved if the first responder had arrived on time. The baby was struggling to breathe and Thrupp attempted CPR after speaking to an ambulance phone operator.

"The emergency call handler calmly discussed the CPR procedure and told me to apply this to Eva," Thrupp told The Daily Record. "My mother desperately waited for a first responder to appear as she could see the strain I was under... They never appeared and after a long 35-minute wait an ambulance arrived and Eva was finally in the hands of the professionals."

But the baby did not survive.

"The ambulance service thinks it's too traumatic for first responders to attend children if there is a negative outcome," Thrupp said. "I think it's more traumatic for us, to be honest. The woman who was on call in Anstruther that day said she would have come if she'd known."

Thrupp and Low are now expecting their second child but they are calling for changes in the first responder policy to avoid such incidents in the future.

"This is a very tragic case and our deepest sympathies are with the family during this time," the Scottish Ambulance Service said in a statement. "We are limited in what we can say publicly due to patient confidentiality but the Scottish Ambulance Service is committed to developing our Community First Responders (CFRs), as they form an integral part of our response."

"We are currently undertaking a review of the role of CFRs which includes considering the welfare and clinical safety of enabling CFRs to attend pediatric calls," the agency said.