Overview

• Christina Lackmann, 32, made a triple-zero call at 7:49 pm on April 21, 2021, reporting dizziness and numbness, but paramedics did not reach her Caulfield North apartment until shortly before 3 am the next day.
• Coroner Catherine Fitzgerald ruled that the seven-hour wait for an ambulance was “unacceptable” and concluded that earlier treatment might have saved the biomedical science student’s life.
• At the time of the call, 80 per cent of Melbourne’s metro ambulances were delayed by hospital ramping and her case was classified as a non-urgent Code 3, preventing transfer to a health practitioner.
• Ambulance Victoria has since conducted an internal review and introduced revised triage protocols aimed at improving emergency response times and easing hospital ramping.
• Emergency medicine experts and toxicologists have noted that caffeine overdoses are largely preventable when clinicians promptly identify and treat the ingestion.