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.

The tragedy unfolded on June 9 last year at Caldy beach, a few miles from the Poyntons' home in Oxton, Wirral. James collapsed while walking with his parents and older sister Claudia, 14, and a friend. They dialled 999 at 8.25pm.

The couple claim they were told an ambulance would not be sent until they could clarify the spelling of the nearest road, Melloncroft Drive.

Once they had done this and paramedics arrived, an officer allegedly refused to hurry to where James's father was giving him mouth-to-mouth. She reached him by 8.35pm.

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.

Yesterday, Mr Poynton, 49, director of a printing firm, said he thought James's life might have been saved if the paramedics had reached him a few minutes sooner.

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"I was angry and upset - we were waiting whilst his life ebbed away."

He added that he felt the fault lay with the system rather than with the individual paramedics.

James, who attended Wirral Boys Grammar School, had suffered fainting fits before but doctors were unable to work out what was wrong.

The day before he died his mother Ann, 48, said she had called the hospital where he was treated to say they were concerned but was told his case was "non-urgent".

A letter offering the schoolboy an MRI scan arrived the day after he died.

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Mrs Poynton added: "Everybody liked James. You couldn't fail to be captivated by his cheeky charm, warmth and lovely cheeky nature."

Paediatric pathologist George Kokai told the hearing in Wallasey that James's heart condition, arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia, was incredibly rare and difficult to diagnose.

The female paramedic admitted that she walked over the first part of the beach but said it was rocky and uneven.

She said that as soon as she reached the sand and saw James in the distance she broke into a run.

The inquest recorded a natural causes verdict.

Last May, two police community support officers refused to dive into a lake to save a drowning boy because they weren't trained for such rescues.

Others then pulled Jordon Lyon out but it was too late to save him.