Staff at an Auckland medical centre refused to send out a doctor, a defibrillator, or even a pillow, despite the desperate pleas of bystanders who were trying to save the life of a man who was dying outside, witnesses say.
The man, aged in his 60s or 70s, collapsed outside the Mt Albert Medical Centre in New North Road on Thursday afternoon, and died at the scene despite being given CPR by members of the public.
Two witnesses told local media that when a person who called for an ambulance was told to go inside and ask for a defibrillator, the medical centre would not give him one because the dying man was “not our patient”.
Mt Albert Medical Centre practice manager Monali Barot later said in a statement “we are deeply saddened by this tragedy and are co-operating fully with authorities”, but the incident has sparked condemnation from the Mt Albert community.
Photos of staff, who according to an online directory are all Indian, have since been widely shared online, but a local Facebook group warned members not to post the images as they may feature former employees, and the identifies of those who were working on the day have not been verified.
Leoni McInroe, a former anaesthetic technician who owns a business nearby, told The New Zealand Herald a young couple had been refused help by the centre, and that as she helped another woman perform CPR she asked someone to get a pillow and a blanket from the centre, but they also refused those requests.
The other woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told Stuff a young man went into the centre to get a defibrillator, but came back and said “no, they wouldn’t give it to us”. A passing cyclist then went in to ask for the device, but was knocked back also.
A person exercising at a nearby Anytime Fitness eventually ran out with the gym’s defibrillator, but it was applied twice to no avail, and the good Samaritan said she believes it may have saved the man’s life if it had been immediately provided by the medical centre.
Ms McInroe said emergency services told her that the young couple had gone into the centre for help a combined eight times, and she told RNZ she was “utterly disgusted” by the centre’s response.
“I didn’t fully understand the resistance that was coming from the medical centre because I kept saying, ‘where are they? Why haven’t they come down?'” she said.
“You’d expect better from a medical centre, wouldn’t you? Oh, it’s just mind-blowing. Their lack of humanity… I’m just sickened. Doctors are under oath to assist. It’s beyond belief.”
Header image: The scene of the man’s death (supplied).
