A heartbroken mum has told how she tried to bring her baby back to life as she waited for almost HALF AN HOUR for an ambulance to arrive – which then got lost on the way to hospital.
Amy Carter, from Thetford, Norfolk, called 999 after her three-month-old daughter Bella Louise Hellings had a fit and stopped breathing.
She stayed on the phone to the operator and started CPR until paramedics finally arrived after 26 minutes - three times longer than expected. The most urgent 999 calls are supposed to be responded to within eight minutes.
When they arrived at her home, paramedics got Bella into the ambulance and rushed to West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds.
But according to Amy there was a further delay as the crew did not know where they were going.
Her partner, Scott Hellings, 24, arrived at the hospital before the ambulance, despite leaving from Thetford at the same time.
Amy told her local paper: "They went the wrong way. They followed the satnav and it was a paramedic from Diss on her first shift ever. It was her first day."
She said that she was shouting from the back of the ambulance to try and direct the driver as they went around one roundabout in Bury St Edmunds twice and headed through Bury town centre to the hospital rather than sticking on the dual carriageway.
"(Bella) was taken into hospital and that is the last I saw of her," her mum said.
An inquest into Bella's death was opened on March 22 by Norfolk's coroner and the case is now being investigated.
The ambulance service wrote to the family last week and visited Amy on Wednesday to say they would look into what happened.
The couple, who have one other child, are now taking legal advice.