KAYLEIGH GROWING UP.

Kayleigh Macilwraith-Christie known to many as Kayleigh Christie was born on November 24th 1990 at Whittington Hospital. She had two brothers, Steven and Paul from her mum Jean Murphy. She also had a brother Kyle and a sister Tara from her dad.
She was a happy baby and as she grew into a toddler she was always laughing and singing.

She attended Goodinge Nursery and then went to Robert Blair Primary School. She was known by teacher's and helpers as being happy and bubbly.

She started to go to Lumpy Hill Adventure Playground at the age of 5 and loved the freedom of the outdoors.

She also used to go to the Drovers Day Centre where her mum was a volunteer. Kayleigh used to enjoy listening to the old people's stories and watching them line-dancing. The old people used to look forward to her visiting and were always asking Jean to bring her over.

BECOMING AN AUNTIE.

Kayleigh first became an auntie in 1999, she was 9 years of age. Her brother Paul and his partner Laura had a baby named Ellie. Kayleigh was over the moon and enjoyed being an auntie.

STORMONT HOUSE SCHOOL.

Kayleigh attended Stormont House at the age of 11. Kayleigh suffered from epilepsy. Her mum decided to send her there because of her illness. Jean felt safer because Kayleigh got picked up and dropped to school and brought back home. There were also qualified first aiders there. Whilst attending school Kayleigh received loads of awards and certificates. In October 2003.
Kayleigh received the Jack Petchey Achievement Award.
She was well liked by both staff and pupils. Kayleigh could not tolerate
bullying and helped to stamp it out at both school and Lumpy Hill Adventure
Playground. She also didn't like to see anyone left out.

LUMPY HILL ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND.

Kayleigh started attending Lumpy at the age of 5 and loved being over there. She loved playing with the other children who lived on the nearby Market Estate. There was always things going on such as making open fires, arts & crafts, pottery and candle-making, baking & cooking and playing on the structures.

As Kayleigh got older, she became a Youth Mentor, which meant that she would work alongside the Playworker's. She set up activities and liked to do arts & crafts with the children and also shadowed the new attenders (5 year old). Kayleigh was also a qualified first aider.

Kayleigh became the Piped Piper of Lumpy Hill, with children following her about and hanging off her. She was an expert at pushing the children on the round the world swing.

Kayleigh wasn't your typical teenager, she wasn't out drinking and smoking and hanging out on the street. She was considerate, caring, helpful, happy-go-lucky.

A example of this was when a new family arrived in the area, a single parent with 8 children. Kayleigh introduced herself and welcomed the family to the area, she invited them over to Lumpy Hill and took them under her wing. Somewhere where the children could go and play safely.

BECOMING AN AUNTIE FOR THE SECOND TIME.

Kayleigh became an auntie for the second time in 2002. She was 12 years of age. Her brother Paul and his partner Laura had another daughter named Amie. Kayleigh was proud of her two nieces.

LUMPY HILL'S TALENT COMPETITION.

Kayleigh was one of many who entered the X Factor Talent Competition at Lumpy. She loved to sing, from a very young age. She loved to sing Celine Dion "My heart will go on" (Love theme from Titanic) and Whitney Houston "I will always love you". Which she sang perfectly.
Kayleigh sang "I will always love you" solo.
Kayleigh won the competition hands down, it was an unanimous decision by all three judges.

ACHIEVEMENTS IN KAYLEIGH'S LAST WEEK.

Kayleigh had a lot of achievements in the last week of her life.

Tue 11th July 06: A launch event on Market Estate, Kayleigh's art work was put up on hoardings in Market Estate alongside ten other young people.
 

Wed 12th July 06:Kayleigh was the only one in her school to receive The Award for Outstanding Achievement in school. She was nominated by her teachers.
Kayleigh attended a consultation with a group of young people to discuss what
they wanted to do in youth club.
 

Fri 14th July 06: Kayleigh had an excellent report from school. Which she was very proud of.

Sadly Kayleigh passed away at 8.30pm the night of the 14th July 2006.

JEAN'S ACCOUNT

The reason for this petition is that I don't want this to happen to anybody else.
As you know by now my daughter Kayleigh Macilwraith-Christie died on the 14th July 2006 at 8.30pm. It was that night I learnt that Medical Technicians existed and I also found out they cannot give life saving drugs.
I found out that all emergency ambulances DO NOT always have a paramedic on board.

My daughter was a Code Red (Ambulance terms for top priority emergency
needing a paramedic and ambulance). I wanted to know what a Technician was
and whilst researching I found loads of BBC Reports dating back to 1995/96
which were informing people there was a crisis looming in regards to the
Ambulance Service ( Links for BBC News Articles on website).

I then realised that there have already been incidents where the Ambulance
Service's computer failed and they had no back up system in place. Also the
response times, where some people had to wait nearly an hour for an
ambulance, just like in Kayleigh's case. Then I started receiving messages
from paramedics and technicians asking me to make this public knowledge,
this is when I realised the Ambulance Service must really be in trouble,
especially if the frontline staff, such as paramedics and technicians are
saying this. Unfortunately they cannot speak openly for fear of losing their
jobs. They have been issued a memo that states they are not allowed to talk
about this issue and they must refer reporters to their press office.

I've since found out that the poor paramedics we have are working back to
back, they are doing overtime some of which they get paid and some there
not. There are 800 qualified paramedics and 25 trainee paramedics, each
shift is 8 hours take off time for annual leave and sickness, we have 33
Boroughs in London. At any one time we only have approx 200 paramedics
working for the whole of London. There are only 100 ambulances for us all.
Originally fast response and motor bikes were issued for paramedics to get
to scenes quickly.

It's hard for you to tell who is a paramedic and who's a technician because
they all wear the same dark green uniform. The only way you can tell is that
a paramedic has paramedic in gold on their shoulder.

Seeing as though a technician cannot give vital drugs, I feel that they
would do a good job assisting paramedics. I also feel that the poor
technicians should not be put in the positions that they are being put in,
by sending them out to Code Red situations.

Let me tell you about the Government Targets, when you call an ambulance
there is a Government Target of 8 minutes. As long as they send someone out
to you from the Ambulance Service they are meeting their Government Target
of 8 minutes. It doesn't matter whether it is an emergency and they send out
a technician who cannot help, they've still met their Government Target.

The technicians themselves do not like being put in these situations for
obvious reasons. should the Ambulance Service not meet the Government Target
they can get their funding cut.

Back in 1992, it was said that the Ambulance Service would install a back up
system in case their computer system went down. In 1994, Nasima Begum died
and yet again they promised a new back up system because the system failed
again. The night that Kayleigh died the system failed again.

STILL NO BACK  UP SYSTEM IN 2006.

Unfortunately it took my daughter dying before I learnt all of this. I am
asking everyone to sign the petition and pass the website address on to your
friends and family, because we need things changed to prevent this happening
again. It's too late for my daughter but it's not to late for other people.
I want things that should already be in place, to be in place!!!

With such an important business such as the Ambulance Service, that deals
with people's lives. Why haven't they got more staff and why do they not
have a back up system. Lets help the poor paramedics and technicians to be
given the tools to run the service properly.

Soon our services will be stretched even more (we are already running on a
skeleton crew). It's not just people living, commuting and spending their
holidays here. The EU floodgates are going to open soon and if the emergency
services cannot cope now (with their skelton crew), what is it going to be
like then? It's all well and good helping other countries but there is an
old saying, "Charity begins at home!" So lets help the ambulance staff and
the people in London and visitors and not the suits and pen pushers and
paper shufflers that determine our fate.

I would just like to add that the Ambulance Service Depot is only 2 streets
away from my home (approx 2/3 minutes away). It is based in Brewery Road and
as you know I am in North Road. It takes 6 minutes to get to Whittington
Hospital. I can't say that my daughter would of survived but I feel a lot of
her chances were taken away that night.

If we all stick together and sign the petition we can change this. If you
live or work here or even just on holiday, this concerns you!!

For the newspaper story please refer to the Islington Gazette story on the News Page,
"Dying Kayleigh let down by errors" 25 Oct 06.

 A fast response car with a medical technician was immediately dispatched
but went to the  wrong floor.
Staff tried to dispatch an ambulance but a computer fault caused a delay.
Kayleigh's ambulance, which had a paramedic on board, had to stop for a 16
year old unconscious.
The fast response driver was told Kayleigh's ambulance had been cancelled
for a higher priority.
The sat nav system directed the ambulance to the wrong estate.
The crew told me that all they could give was oxygen because they were not
paramedics.
Control room staff had no way to know which vehicles had paramedics.

JEAN'S DIARY OF THAT NIGHT.

6.50pm called an ambulance                                                      
6.59pm  called ambulance again                                                     
7.05pm (approx) medical technician arrived in response car technician called ambulance
technician called ambulance again ( computer system failed)
technician called hospital as system had failed.
7.30pm (approx) ambulance arrived to Estate next door had to chase them down the street    
seemed shocked and didn't know what to do, technician shouted "Move it, move it"
had trouble lifting Kayleigh on to chair
put Kayleigh in ambulance and were stationary for 5/6 minutes
got Kayleigh to hospital
hospital staff worked on Kayleigh for 1/2 hour
Kayleigh was pronounced dead at 8.30pm.

REMEMBER THE FIRST CALL WAS MADE AT 6.50PM.

WHY?
Why are Paramedics and technicians dressed in the same dark green uniform, is that to make us
think there are more paramedics than there is?
Why wasn't a back up system already in place?
Why was Kayleigh sent a technician in the first place, when she was a code red?
Why was Kayleigh sent 2 technicians and 2 trainee's in total?
Why was Kayleigh sent 2 trainee's on their first time out to an emergency?
Why did I have to make 2 phone calls for an ambulance?
Why did the the technician who was first to the house, have to make 3 phone calls for the
ambulance?
Why do they think that they got Kayleigh to the hospital at 7.40pm?
Why wasn't Kayleigh sent a paramedic on the ambulance sent to her?
Why did the ambulance take so long when I first called at 6.50pm?
Why is there only 800 paramedics?
Why is there more technicians (1,665) than paramedics?

As you can see a lot of errors were made that night. It is nice to be able
to have my say without a highly paid smooth talking suit polishing over
everything I say. This is my website so now I can have my say!! The worse
thing is that their true opinion is probably not what they are paid to say.

LESS SUITS AND MORE PARAMEDICS!!

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