Mum begged for ambulance days before she and disabled daughter found dead in flat

Daily Record

3 days ago

Alphonsine Leuga, 47, and her daughter Loraine Choulla, 18, were found dead inside their home in Nottingham, on May 21, 2024.
A mum who was found dead alongside her teenage daughter had pleaded for an ambulance, telling emergency call handlers she was freezing and couldn't move. However, help never came.
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Alphonsine Leuga, 47, and her daughter Loraine Choulla, 18, were found dead inside their council home on Hartley Road in Radford, Nottingham, on May 21, 2024. The inquest heard the pair likely died "weeks to months" before they were discovered, reports the Mirror.
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Alphonsine's provisional cause of death has been established as pneumonia of uncertain cause, while her daughter's cause of death remains unascertained. An inquest into their deaths started on Monday, July 21, at Nottingham Coroners' Court.
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The first day of the hearing was told of a missed opportunity from East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) to send an ambulance to their address. The hearing was told that the mother had been admitted to City Hospital between January 26 and 28, during which she was "critically unwell".
Coroner Amanda Bewley was told that Alphonsine had low iron levels, required a three-litre blood transfusion, and was suffering from a respiratory tract infection during a hospital stay in January. But she was discharged "pragmatically" on January 28 as she was the sole carer for her daughter, who was 'entirely dependent' on her.
Loraine had Down Syndrome and learning disabilities. Just a week later, on February 2, Alphonsine made a 999 call at 1.04pm, pleading for help.
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A transcript of the call was read to the court. Alphonsine said: "I need some help please. I need help to my daughter. I feel cold. I am on the bed. I feel cold and can't move. Please send an ambulance. I do not want police, I need ambulance… my daughter. Would you send an ambulance? Please, come, please."
The court heard mumbling and groaning in the background, and Alphonsine was repeatedly asked what language she spoke and where she lived, despite stating her address clearly multiple times.
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Susan Jevons, head of patient safety at East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS), confirmed Ms Leuga gave her address clearly.
But the call was cut off and although attempts were made to ring her back, no contact was made.
The inquest heard EMAS should have categorised the emergency as a Category 3 call, which requires a crew to arrive within 120 minutes.
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However, an ambulance was never dispatched because emergency medical advisor wrongly closed the call down, assuming it had been abandoned.
Ms Jevons explained. She said: "That should not have happened because we had obtained the address and a disposition from Alphonsine.
"They followed the abandoned call process when they shouldn't have because they had an address and phone number [for Ms Leuga]. The abandoned call process should only be used for hoax calls. We should not have followed this process at all.
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"EMAS did contact Alphonsine back to get more information but the call remained unanswered and the call was marked as abandoned which should not have happened."
Ms Jevons told coroner Ms Bewley that there was a missed opportunity from the emergency medical advisor to seek guidance from a senior colleague regarding how to proceed with the call after no contact could be made with Ms Leuga.
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Had that happened, the call would have remained active and an ambulance would likely have been dispatched.
She admitted: "There was a missed opportunity for an ambulance to attend Alphonsine's address."
The hearing also heard that if an ambulance had been sent, it could have "made the difference between life and death for Loraine."
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Since the incident, EMAS staff have been told to re-read the protocol on handling abandoned calls. The inquest was told there have been no similar incidents since February 2024.
Pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton said it could not be ruled out that Alphonsine died the very same day she made the 999 call.
He said "significant post-mortem change" had hindered the findings, but an internal examination showed inflammation in the lungs, consistent with pneumonia.
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Dr Hamilton told the court it was "impossible" to pinpoint when either woman died, but said Alphonsine had likely been dead for weeks to months.
The same was concluded for Loraine. The the Mirror. heard she was totally reliant on her mother for food and water. While she could fill a glass if prompted, she wouldn't do so unassisted.
The teenager's stomach was empty at the time of the post-mortem. Her weight had plummeted from 108kg in February 2023 to 59kg in May 2024.
While some of that drop could be attributed to post-mortem change, Dr Hamilton said: "There is nothing in my findings suggesting that dehydration as a cause of death would be incorrect. Dehydration causes death more rapidly than malnutrition."
A cause of death was proposed by coroner Ms Bewley as 1a dehydration and 1b Down Syndrome and learning disabilities. This will be officially established at the end of the coronial proceedings, however, on Friday, July 25.
The inquest continues.