THE father of an 11-year-old boy who died after collapsing during a walk on the beach has said paramedics would not run to save his son’s life.

Company director Jim Poynton, from Oxton, Wirral, said he believed a more urgent response might have saved his son, James, a student at Wirral grammar school, after he died of an undiagnosed heart condition.

He said paramedics walked to the point on Caldy beach where his son lay dying, after he had been told to spell the name of a nearby road so the ambulance could find them.

Mr Poynton said: “They would not come because we were on the beach and until we knew how to spell the name of the road we were near. Then the paramedic would not run. She said it was health and safety. We were shouting ‘just get here now’. Then she understood how bad it was. It was a terrible night. I was giving James mouth-to- mouth resuscitation. They never got him back again.”

An inquest at Wallasey town hall, which recorded a verdict of death by natural causes, heard that the day he died, Friday, June 9, last year, James had gone to his father’s office from school and the two cycled to their home. Later, the family had gone for a walk on Caldy beach. James had been walking ahead of his father, mother and sister with a friend when he collapsed. The ambulance service was contacted at 8.25pm and arrived at 8.35pm.

Specialist paediatric pathol-ogist George Kokai told the court the heart condition, arrhythmogenic right ventri-cular displasia, was so rare he had only seen it two or three times during his career, and it was difficult to diagnose.

After the inquest, James’s father said he believed both the ambulance service and the NHS had let his son down.

He said there were warning signs when his son collapsed several times prior to the day he died, but doctors initially said it was “fainting fits”.

Mr Poynton said: “More could have been done to diag-nose after the warning signs.”

The North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS) said: “The Trust would like to offer its sincere condolences to the family and reassure its patients that it treats all calls seriously. It is committed to delivering the highest levels of patient care whilst ensuring the safety of its staff.”

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