Ambulance bosses have apologised after admitting a motorcyclist with a 95 per cent chance of surviving a bike crash died after a ‘series of errors and system failures’.

Aaron Morris, 31, died following a collision in Esh Winning, near Durham, on July 1, weeks after learning his wife was expecting twins.

An internal investigation has been carried out by North East Ambulance Service, which has apologised to his 28-year-old widow Samantha.

The Northern Echo: Samantha pictured with her twin boys Samantha pictured with her twin boys (Image: Contributor)

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She said: “I have to live with knowing he should be here.

“I have flashbacks of pulling him from under that car in the rain telling him ‘don't worry, just breathe, everything's going to be okay’.

“I was so wrong.”

The investigation found paramedics, who should reached him within 18 minutes, instead took 49 minutes and 49 seconds.

When the first call was made at 12.27pm there were ten 999 calls in a queue and it took 98 seconds to be answered.

The expected standard is that the call should be answered within five seconds.

At least six 999 calls were made for Aaron, including repeated calls from a police officer and an off-duty nurse telling call handlers his condition was deteriorating.

A police officer who said the ambulance had to ‘hurry up’ was informed the call was still awaiting allocation due to 74 outstanding emergencies.  

The report said a clinical update from the scene and request for the air ambulance was not documented in the call notes and was not passed to the air ambulance desk.

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The Northern Echo: Aaron Morris Aaron Morris (Image: Contributor)

Samantha said: "If that air ambulance had come Aaron would be here as all he needed was a chest drain and some blood to stabilise him to get him to the RVI. “A 20-minute procedure that a trauma doctor could have done at the roadside.

“With a 95 per cent chance of survival the odds weren’t even against him.

“All of his injuries were reversible and survivable and his death was completely avoidable.”

Aaron arrived at University Hospital of North Durham at 2.14pm, almost three hours after the original 999 call was made, and died from his injuries with his wife by his side.

Aaron’s twin sons, Aaron-Junior John Robson Morris and Ambrose-Ayren Morris, were born three months premature in October.

The Northern Echo: Aaron did not get the chance to meet his twin boys Aaron did not get the chance to meet his twin boys (Image: Contributor)

Samantha said she hopes sharing her experience will help people learn of the danger of misusing ambulances and highlight the need for more Government funding for the service.

She said: “If it saves one family from losing someone who could have been saved it is one good thing I've done.

“NEAS made mistakes unrelated to under funding and misuse but those mistakes wouldn't have mattered if ambulances were available to come sooner.

“I want Aaron never to be forgotten and I want the boys to see how important he was.

“Hopefully when they older we can say these things are in place because we fought so hard for what happened to your Dad to never happened again.

“I wish it wasn't Aaron it had to happen to, but it has and we need to make sure to protect other people from the same mistakes.”

The Northern Echo: Aaron and Samantha MorrisAaron and Samantha Morris (Image: Contributor)

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The 25-page report from NEAS has identified 14 separate issues in the response to Aaron’s crash including:

  • An ambulance was not allocated until 25 minutes after the first call.
  • Ambulance crew from a third party company could not operate the sat-nav system and did not know the way to the nearest hospital when Aaron was in cardiac arrest so Samantha was asked for directions.
  • At least six calls were made from the scene - one from a police officer requesting an ambulance 'on the hurry up.'
  • There were shortages of operational staff, and on the day in question they were 31 staff members down.

Chief operating officer at North East Ambulance Service, Stephen Segasby, said: "Firstly, I would like to offer our sincere and heartfelt condolences to Aaron's loved ones. This was a tragic event.

"When concerns were raised with us about Aaron's treatment we reported these as a serious incident and began an internal investigation into what had happened.

“We have now shared the outcome of the serious incident review with Aaron's family."

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Mr Segasby said: "There were a number of organisations involved in this case and we unreservedly apologise for not providing the response from our service that Aaron should have received.

“There are a number of actions arising from the review of this incident that we are committed to taking forward to improve the coordination of our response.

"We will of course now cooperate fully with the coroner to provide all the information required to make their independent judgement and for that reason it would not be appropriate for us to comment further on the detail of this case until that process is concluded."