St John media response re Cherish Tahuri-Wright

By St John Operatioons Director Tony Blaber

The nterim St John media response to the article in the Dominion Post today regarding the ambulance service response to Cherish Tahuri-Wright.

We wish to express our condolences to the family of Cherish Tahuri-Wright.

We are taking this case very seriously.

St John has an internal investigation underway, initiated before the Dominion Post article.

Interim findings show there was an immediate emergency ambulance response to this case in Marton on 17 February.

A PRIME doctor (Advanced Life Support capable) was on the scene in 19 minutes (within our response standards for this area), and a double crewed ambulance from Fielding arrived within the next minute.

In addition a Clinical Manager with specialist skills, an Advanced Life Support emergency helicopter and an Advanced Life Support crew from Wanganui were also mobilised.

The patient received high level clinical care at the scene and needed to be stabilised at the scene before being transported to hospital in an air ambulance.

Interim investigation findings from our Medical Advisor show that the specific care provided to the patient was of a high standard and it is unlikely it has had any impact on the child's outcome - but that further investigations are required.

We told the Dominion Post - which was the first media organisation to run this story - that it is important for us to complete our internal investigation in a robust way before commenting in further detail.

We intend to have this investigation completed as soon as possible; the main question being could this child’s care have been provided differently and would outcomes have been any different.

ends

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