Tragic Co Mayo Death Linked to Ambulance Delay, Dáil Hears

A critically ill man from north Mayo whose family had to drive him more than 80 kilometres to hospital due to an ambulance delay died within hours of arriving at Mayo University Hospital, the Dáil heard. Stephen Lavelle became unwell in An Geata Mór on Saturday 10 January in what a doctor described as a category one emergency. But the ambulance was delayed and his family had to drive him the long distance to hospital. They only picked up the ambulance three minutes from the hospital in Castlebar. The Sinn Féin Leader Mary Lou McDonald said the emergency should have been responded to within 19 minutes but that did not happen. She said the case was an example of the "severe crisis" in the ambulance service, which she said was "stretched to breaking point". "His wife Martina, his son Anthony, and his daughter-in-law Rebecca all accompanied him. As they drove, Stephen's condition deteriorated. "He was screaming in pain. They kept getting disconnected from the ambulance service because of the bad mobile phone coverage. "Stephen’s head began to droop. His eyes were wide in his head, and Rebecca started CPR in the car." Ms McDonald said when the family finally met the ambulance, they were "only three minutes away from the hospital". "When they arrived, nobody was waiting for them at the hospital. Anthony ran in and got help, and it was now well after midnight. "Stephen’s pulse came back after eight minutes of CPR. He was ventilated and he was brought to the ICU, but sadly, Stephen passed away the following morning." Ms McDonald said that not even a quarter of the 2,000 workers required to properly staff the ambulance service nationally have been hired. The Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that no words can console the family of Mr Lavelle but there has been significant investment in the ambulance service in recent years. He is to request the ambulance service and the HSE to examine the case of Mr Lavelle. On recruitment, he said: "There had been additional posts allocated to the National Ambulance Service (NAS). "We're looking at this year alone again, another €8m for 180 additional posts, and for development of NAS specialist services - about 81 of those have been recruited to date with the remainder at various stages of recruitment. "At the moment, investment by Government is seeing total NAS staff rise to 2,430 as of August 2025 and that’s a rise of 25% or 502 staff since 2020 - with 85% working in direct patient facing roles." Ms McDonald said the Government was putting lives at risk by failing to resource and recruit for the service. Mr Martin defended recruitment in the service but said further reforms in alternative care pathways were also needed.