London Ambulance settles brain injury claim over defib delay

Meg Fozzard, then 26, suffered life-altering brain damage after paramedics from the London Ambulance Service delayed an electric shock by eight minutes during her cardiac arrest at her home in Walworth, South London, in April 2019, leading to an undisclosed settlement from the service after it admitted breaches in its duty of care.

Fozzard collapsed while struggling to breathe and fitting, triggered by an undiagnosed underlying heart condition. Her partner, Xander Font Freide, called 999 and performed CPR as instructed by the emergency operator. Paramedics arrived after difficulty locating the flat but initially doubted she was in cardiac arrest, despite the operator's earlier assessment. The defibrillator, a specialist LifePak device that monitors vital signs and delivers shocks, indicated a shock was needed due to her deadly heart rhythm. However, crews attached monitoring leads instead of defibrillation pads, preventing the alert. They then pressed the wrong button, delaying the device's emergency analysis mode by four more minutes for a total eight-minute postponement before the shock was administered. The oxygen deprivation during this period caused severe brain injury.