Shock after child in 'medical emergency' at Colchester flats

Shock after child in 'medical emergency' at Colchester flats
RESIDENTS have spoken of their shock after seeing emergency services rush to the aid of a child suffering from a 'medical emergency' at a block of flats.

Eyewitnesses said the huge response from medical staff, who were seen resuscitating a child in South Circular Road on Wednesday, was unlike anything they had seen before.

One resident said the ambulance had a police escort when it left the scene, with police remaining outside the block of flats until around midnight.

Response – police remained on the scene until around midnight The individual, who asked not to be named, said: “I saw all the police running in – there must have been about 12 of them running through the main door.

“Then my neighbours said they saw the ambulances with a stretcher.

“There was someone having CPR, and after that there were blue lights and the police leaving with the ambulance – that’s as I saw it.”

Another resident said they saw paramedics carrying out CPR as they took the victim into the ambulance, and said the person on the stretcher appeared to be a child.

They said: “Someone was being resuscitated the whole time they were coming down – the whole time.

“It thought it was a child.

"When you do CPR on a child you use one hand – and they were using one hand.”

They continued: “One person said to me, ‘Why would they have so many police?’

"There aren’t that many police if it isn’t something serious.

“If there are two police cars escorting the ambulance, that seems serious.”

Concern – residents said they were shocked by what they saw. A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service confirmed they attended an emergency.

He said: “We were called at 8.19pm with reports of a medical emergency at a private address in Circular Road South, Colchester.

“We sent an ambulance, ambulance officer vehicle and a rapid response vehicle.

“One person was taken to Colchester Hospital for further care.”