A CALLOUS paramedic who stood and watched a heart attack victim dying outside
an NHS hospital has been spared jail.
Matthew Geary was given an eight-month prison term, suspended for two years,
after a court heard that he failed to provide any help to the patient
despite seeing him stumble and fall to the ground.
CCTV footage played to Wolverhampton Crown Court showed Geary leaving Carl
Cope – whom he wrongly assumed was drunk – collapsed in the road.
Geary, who has since resigned from West Midlands Ambulance Service, then went
inside Walsall Manor Hospital to summon security staff.
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.
Prosecutor Gordon Aspden told Judge Warner that Mr Cope, from Bloxwich, near
Walsall, was taken to hospital by Geary on the morning of June 23, 2012,
after he called an ambulance for treatment for chest pains.
Although Mr Cope was not in good health and had a heart condition, ECG tests
conducted by ambulance staff suggested his symptoms were not
cardiac-related.
He was subsequently taken to Walsall Manor but decided to leave its accident
and emergency department to buy a drink from a nearby shop.
But as he returned to the department, Mr Cope collapsed yards away from its
main entrance in an area in full view of Geary and other ambulance staff.
Security camera video handed to a police inquiry into the incident showed four
staff members walking past Mr Cope and Geary standing over him for around
two minutes before walking into the hospital.
The paramedic, who had taken no equipment from his ambulance, was filmed with
his hands in his pockets, apparently talking to Mr Cope, and was seen
lifting and dropping Mr Geary’s limp arm.
The 36-year-old, of Great Wyrley, Staffs, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing
to breaching health and safety laws by failing to conduct a proper
examination of Mr Cope or to attempt prompt resuscitation.
Sentencing Geary, Judge John Warner condemned his actions as “callous and
uncaring” and wholly at odds with his job.