A coroner has today criticised an ambulance service for presiding over a 'muddled' rescue operation that led to the death of a mother-of-six who was trapped upside down between sea defence rocks as the tide came in.
Saffron Cole-Nottage, 32, had been walking her dog with her daughter when she lost her footing on a slippery concrete walkway in Lowestoft, Suffolk, and plunged over the edge headfirst.
After a passer-by rang 999 for help, the ambulance service operator failed to establish for seven minutes that the tide was coming in at speed, the inquest has heard.
It was only 13 minutes into the call which began at 7.52pm on February 2 last year that Suffolk Fire and Rescue were contacted about attending the incident.
The paramedic who was the first emergency responder to arrive at the scene is then said to have ignored protocols that make it clear that a rescue and resuscitation should be attempted up to 30 minutes after arriving.
