MEDICS: DO NOT GIVE ASTHMA GIRL OXYGEN

TWO divers fighting to save the life of a young Scots asthma sufferer were told by paramedics NOT to give her oxygen.

Maria McGinley was working as a waitress at the Hungry Monk restaurant in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, when she suddenly collapsed.

Experienced divers Ralph Lennox and Peter Thompson rushed to her aid after stopping off at the restaurant for dinner.

After seeing the 16-year-old struggling to breathe Ralph and Peter, who are members of the East Kilbride Sub Aqua Club, grabbed their oxygen tanks. But when ambulance controllers heard what the two were doing they told them to stop giving Maria oxygen.

"When I asked what to give her instead they told me to wait until the ambulance arrived," Peter said.

"But I said to the guy I didn't think the girl would still be around. I've never seen anyone as bad as that who wasn't dead."

Club secretary Ralph, who has undergone training in the administration of oxygen and life support, said he and Peter ignored their advice and carried on trying to save schoolgirl Maria, who had fallen unconscious.

Fortunately their plan worked and Maria made a full recovery.

Ralph said: "This was a life or death situation and we were in the right place at the right time. It was clear she needed oxygen and that's what we gave her.

"We knew we'd done the right thing because when the ambulance service eventually arrived some 20 minutes later the first thing they did was give her oxygen. If we hadn't given the girl oxygen I think the outcome may have been very different."

Ralph and Peter have now sent a letter of complaint to the ambulance service over their handling of the incident.

Professor Neil Thomson, an expert in respiratory medicine at Glasgow University, said: "In a young person with an acute asthma attack oxygen is one of the treatments used to treat that attack. In older patients one may need to be more careful about the concentration of oxygen given."

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said: "Clinically, from the point of view of our paramedics, if you administer oxygen without the proper medical training the danger is it can cause more harm. That's why they gave that advice."

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