Paramedics refused to run to boy of 11 dying on a beach ... in case they got out of breath

A paramedic refused to run to help an 11-year-old boy who was dying on the beach - because of health and safety rules, his father claimed yesterday.

The ambulance officer insisted on walking to the spot where James Poynton had collapsed, so she would not be out of breath.

Although she reached him within ten minutes of the alarm being raised, it was too late to save the youngster.



It emerged afterwards that James, a grammar school pupil, was suffering from a rare heart condition which doctors had failed to diagnose.

After an inquest into the death, his father Jim said he believed the ambulance service and the Health Service had let his son down.

A spokesman for North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust confirmed that its staff generally would not run on uneven ground as they were carrying heavy equipment and might not be able to carry out resuscitation if they were out of breath.