Paramedic Sentenced Stood Over A Heart Attack Victim

According to report a paramedic who stood over a heart attack victim for a couple of minutes as he lay dying outside hospital has been sentenced.

Matthew Geary, who had his hands in his pockets, wrongly assumed Carl Cope, 47, was drunk and CCTV footage showed he left him collapsed in the road, a court heard.

Geary, 36, failed to provide any help to the patient despite seeing him stumble and fall to the ground outside Walsall Manor Hospital, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The paramedic, who had taken no equipment from his ambulance, was filmed apparently talking to Mr Cope, and was seen lifting and dropping his limp arm.

After two minutes he was seen walking away and then went to summon security staff who tried to rouse Mr Cope but the judge said "it was all too late".

The defendant, of Great Wyrley, Staffordshire, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching health and safety laws by failing to conduct a proper examination of Mr Cope or to attempt prompt resuscitation.

Sentencing, Judge John Warner condemned the paramedic's actions as "callous and uncaring" and wholly at odds with his job, and gave him a suspended eight-month prison term.

He ordered Geary to complete 240 hours of community service and suspended his custodial sentence for two years.

Judge Warner described Mr Cope's treatment as a "truly lamentable" sequence of events.

Prosecutor Gordon Aspden told the judge that Mr Cope, from Bloxwich, near Walsall, was taken to hospital by Geary in June 2012, after he called an ambulance for treatment following chest pains.

Although Mr Cope was not in good health and had a heart condition, ECG tests conducted by ambulance staff suggested his symptoms were not cardiac-related.

He was then taken to Walsall Manor but decided to leave its accident and emergency department to buy a drink from a nearby shop. 

But as he returned to the department, Mr Cope collapsed yards away from its main entrance in an area in full view of Geary and other ambulance staff. 

Security camera video handed to a police inquiry into the incident showed four staff members walking past Mr Cope, and Geary standing over him for around two minutes before walking into the hospital. 

The court heard Geary had handed Mr Cope over to nurses at the hospital and was later seen chatting about football as the patient was slumped beside a bin outside its Accident and Emergency department.

The judge criticised medical staff for discussing the "ownership" of Mr Cope as he lay dying, telling Geary: "It was almost as if he was some kind of chattel.

"Eventually you went over to him, not providing medical help and asked security to deal with it. Security eventually came out and tried to rouse Mr Cope but it was all too late.

"There was no excuse in my judgement for the way you failed to act. Without any justification you had obviously come to a view about him."