Pär Eriksson, 42, in Örnsköldsvik had a cardiac arrest – but no ambulance came

Asked to drive six miles with heart attack – saved by family: “Without them I wouldn’t be sitting here”

Electrician Pär Eriksson, 42, was on his way home from work when he felt pressure on his chest and realized that something was very wrong.

But from SOS Alarm he was advised to drive the six miles himself to the hospital in Örnsköldsvik.

– I told them, I don’t have six miles left in my body.

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Pär Eriksson sits pale in the hospital bed in the heart clinic, surrounded by tangled sheets, cords and partner Kristina close by.

He still remembers the feeling there in the car, how time ran out of his body.

– How can they ask me to drive, I don’t understand. I saw in front of me that this is going to hell.

That day in April, he had been at work over Kittelfjäll, when the pain in his chest and back came. In a parking lot, he gave the coordinates for the SOS alarm and asked for help.

He was told to get in the car and drive.

Memories of what happened next are hazy. He was confused, called again. Would any help come and meet him?

But no ambulance ever showed up. In retrospect, it has turned out that there was no one available to send.

Pär also called his partner Kristina.

– I heard in the voice that he was in pain and was afraid, she says.

The way home was a horror, Pär wasn’t sure he would make it. When he finally arrived and got inside the door, he began to hyperventilate and quickly became unconscious.

The partner, Kristina, has no nursing training, but started with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as she had seen it done on television.

The children, 10 and 12 years old, were helped to call 112 and rushed off to the Duvan preschool in the middle of the village. They had gone there themselves and therefore knew exactly where there was a defibrillator set up.

– I absolutely do not think that they have understood that they made as big a difference as they actually did, says Kristina.

Thanks to the family’s efforts, Pär’s life was probably saved on the living room floor that afternoon in April.

“The patient could very likely have died,” wrote the cardiology clinic in Sundsvall afterwards in its notification of deviation. Despite an acute heart attack, he was refused an ambulance twice, it is stated there.

The problems of ambulance care in Västernorrland are rewritten

Last year said 19 ambulance drivers on a board, after introducing new rules and schedules. From October to April, they have been forced to deploy unmanned ambulances due to staff shortages on average 63.7 times per month. An ambulance was not in operation on the day Pär’s heart stopped: it had been running earlier during the day but had not been manned at all since October last year.

Even if new ambulance drivers have been hired, it does not cover the need.

– We have also not managed to recruit to the same extent in all locations, which means that today we have a staff shortage at some stations while we have a good staffing situation at others, says Peter Neuman, director of operations at the ambulance service.

The distances in this part of the country are great, and the care is understaffed. Cutbacks lead to seriously ill people being driven across the region.

When the ambulance finally arrived, they wanted to take Pär directly to the hospital in Umeå, where the closest treatment for acute heart attack is available – but were refused, due to lack of space.

Denying someone life-saving, non-urgent care is against the rules, and delayed help by several hours, according to the care’s own notification of deviations.

It probably risked Pär’s life. Instead, he had to be taken by ambulance to Sundsvall, where he underwent surgery. In Örnsköldsvik there is no capacity at all for this.

– It took a long time to call for an ambulance for yourself, says Pär.

He who is a part-time firefighter, used to being the one who helps others and recently named Ö-viks Hero of the Year 2024 after saving a family from a burning house.

Now the thoughts are spinning. What would have happened if Pär had suffered a cardiac arrest while he was behind the wheel, what if he had killed someone else, a family with children?

– What bothers me now in retrospect is that they don’t just sacrifice me. You sacrifice everyone else along the way as well.

When Pär woke up, he felt both gratitude and horror.

– I thought that something has gone wrong and something has gone well, because I’m awake.

Then he had been sedated for a day and a half, so that his heart and brain would have time to recover.

His partner Kristina hugs his hand.

– What we knew then was that you had moved both arms, so it wasn’t total paralysis. But those days were incredibly hard. When they said he’s awake, he’s ready, it was amazing.

The chest still hurts and when we meet Pär, his heart is being monitored by the nurses around the clock.

The hardest thing is falling asleep. To close your eyes and suffer from the fear of not waking up again, says Pär.

– It has taken some time to realize what has actually happened. There was so much that went wrong, but then it sort of turned out right.