In June 2020 Brian O’Neill had an unwitnessed fall at an off-grid rural hutting community with limited connections to local services. He sustained a wound to his head and tragically passed away the following day.

Shortly after the fall he was attended to by friends who in turn called on the assistance of Dr Leanne Rae, who was in her fourth year working as a psychiatrist and happened to be socialising nearby. Dr Rae inspected the wound and considered that an ambulance was required to transport Mr O’Neill to hospital. A 999 call was made and the call handler arranged a call back for further remote triage. Triage was performed by a trainee advanced paramedic practitioner, Ms Noden, an SAS employee. Parties disputed the precise content of this triage call which was not recorded.

It was the pursuers’ position that Ms Noden ought to have dispatched an ambulance given Mr O’Neill’s condition; a bleeding head wound, the fact that he had consumed alcohol and taking into account the fact he was on blood thinning medication. The pursuers led evidence from a consultant paramedic who was critical of Ms Noden’s actions and from a consultant in emergency medicine who indicated that an ambulance could have attended to Mr O’Neill within 17 minutes of the call being made. The same expert opined that had Mr O’Neill been conveyed to hospital, his wound would have been sutured or stapled and he would not have died from blood loss, as he tragically did.

It was the defenders’ position that Ms Noden did not require to dispatch an ambulance as her recollection was that Dr Rae had indicated that she would arrange private transportation to take Mr O’Neill to hospital. They suggested that as a medical doctor was present it was acceptable that an ambulance was not dispatched. The defenders’ position was, in short, that there had been no breach of duty of care. The defenders also suggested that even if an ambulance had been dispatched by Ms Noden, Mr O’Neill would not have been cooperative and would not have attended hospital in any event.

Dr Rae gave evidence to the effect that Ms Noden stated that it would take some two to three hours for an ambulance to arrive and that she would not be sending an ambulance. Dr Rae indicated that she was unhappy with this decision but had at least satisfied herself that Mr O’Neill’s wound had stopped bleeding before leaving.

The following morning Mr O’Neill was found on the floor of his hut, an ambulance was called but unfortunately he could not be resuscitated.

Lord Young preferred Dr Rae’s evidence over Ms Noden’s and concluded that she failed in a number of duties of care that were required of her. He also did not accept the defender’s assertion that Mr O’Neill would not have attended hospital had an ambulance been dispatched. Consequently, decree was granted in favour of the pursuers with financial awards made.

The solicitors for the family were Drummond Miller’s Liesa Spiller, assisted by trainee solicitors Lewis MacKinnon and Sinem Kilic. The family were represented in court by Lauren Sutherland KC and Hugh Masters, advocate.