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Edition 366
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A TRAGIC DELAY?
nine-year-old British boy died after a freak accident on Cala Bosque beach in La Zenia on Tuesday, with a 40 minute wait for a SAMU ambulance to arrive on the scene, after it had to travel all the way from Orihuela City. The Informacion newspaper reported that three SAMU units in the area were involved in “non-priority” assignments, and it states that witnesses to the tragedy complained about the late arrival of health professionals, as well as the lack of easily available defibrillators on the Orihuela Costa. The boy suffered a cardiac arrest, after colliding with another youngster in a football kick-about on the sand, and he eventually
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Friday 6th April 2018
died at Alicante General Hospital on Wednesday. The unnamed youngster, believed to have been with his grandmother at the beach, lived in the area, with the first emergency call being made on Tuesday afternoon shortly after 5.40 pm. The lifeguard service in the area contracted by Orihuela council had finished for the Easter period the previous day, and the Informacion newspaper reports that it took 20 minutes for the first ambulance, a basic life support unit, to arrive on the scene, having picked up a doctor from the La Regia health centre. Bystanders tried to revive him after he collapsed, before Orihuela local police and Guardia Civil officers
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Property ID: 178 - 155,000€ arrived. A fully equipped SAMU paramedic ambulance did not arrive on the scene until 40 minutes after emergency services were notified of the incident. The boy was revived with a weak pulse, and was taken to the Hospital Quirón de Torrevieja, before being transferred by air ambu-
lance to Alicante General Hospital. He died at the facility at around 5.00 pm on Wednesday while he was in an induced coma. Orihuela council issued a rare statement over a beach death, where it expressed “its utmost condolences over the loss of the British child”.
RUBBISH RECOMMENDATIONS
rihuela council has been criticised for the second time in seven months by the Valencian Ombudsman, and this time waste collection services on the Orihuela Costa have come under his spotlight. José Cholbi (pictured), acting on a complaint from the Federación de Asociaciones de Orihuela Costa (FAOC), has urged the Orihuela authority to provide the manpower that is needed to provide an effective service for the Orihuela Costa. The Ombudsman can only make recommendations, and his advice comes on the back of his ruling in September (also prompted by FAOC) that Orihuela
council needed to do something over the dangerous state of playgrounds and green spaces on the Orihuela Costa. FAOC’s latest complaint criticised the waste collection service on a variety of fronts, including the amount of uncollected rubbish on the roads, and the lack of rubbish containers, with some of those needing to be replaced. Orihuela council sent evidence to the Ombudsman outlining their efforts to improve the waste disposal service in the area, and back in December announced a tender for new rubbish collection trucks, of which two would be allocated to the Orihuela Costa.
Three illegal waste dumps were also cleared at the start of the year. José Cholbi said that he appreciated the efforts of Orihuela council, but pointed out that waste collections were an essential public service and that they needed to be carried out “effectively and efficiently”, and
that the authority must take appropriate measures to improve what they do in the Orihuela Costa area. A FAOC spokesperson said that he hoped that the Orihuela council would take account of the Ombudsman’s comments and take account of the area’s needs in 2018.
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