Paramedic Leaves Heart Attack Patient To Die, By Walking Away

A paramedic was called "callous and uncaring", Matthew Geary walked free from court avoiding a jail sentence. He watched an heart attack victim, Carl Cope slump to the ground and died outside Walsall's Manor Hospital as he stood by and did nothing.  In his defence, Mr. Geary said he though the heart attack victim was drunk.

Mirror reports, the court heard that Geary had handed Mr Cope, 47, 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.

Geary took him to Walsall Manor Hospital A&E, where CCTV images showed the victim ‘struggling to make himself comfortable and visibly in a lot of pain’ in the waiting room.

After seven minutes, Mr Cope went to a nearby shop to get a drink.

On his way back, he collapsed outside the hospital doors - in full view of Geary, who was sat in his ambulance.

After the sentencing yesterday, Mr Cope’s family released a statement.

It said: “Nobody should ever have to go through what we have endured for the past two-and-a-half years.

“It’s hard to lose a loved one but to lose a loved one under such tragic circumstances has had a devastating effect on our family. 

“We still can’t understand what happened to him that day and none of us can come to terms with the loss that someone - who was such a big part of our family - was taken from us so unnecessarily.”

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: “Geary, fully aware he brought Carl to the hospital suffering from chest pains, is finally seen on CCTV going to his patient.

“He takes no equipment with him and stands over Carl, with his hands in his pockets, talking to him for two minutes. 

“Geary takes a closer look at Carl and then wrongly asks the hospital security to deal with him, before returning to his ambulance. 

“When the security guard is seen arriving five minutes later, Carl Cope did not appear to be showing any signs of life.”

A postmortem confirmed Mr Cope died of a heart attack. Had his chest pain been considered and monitored properly, experts said his chances of survival would have been ‘significantly higher’.

Geary was among five ambulance and hospital staff arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with Mr Cope’s death, which happened at around 10.15am on June 23.

Manslaughter charges were not pursued as he may not have survived the heart attack.