BACK FROM THE DEAD, The Northern Echo
It began with a piece of old-fashioned journalism. A trainee reporter making contacts in their patch following a series of articles on a subject which leads to an explosive tip off. Over the last 12 months the Echo has highlighted some serious issues with the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS). Serious breaches of rules and regulations, criticisms and whistleblowers lifting the lid on serious issues involving patients not receiving the treatment or care they needed. Shining a light on a catalogue of blunders and ‘cover ups’ led to court cases, paramedics being struck off, inquiry and service chiefs apologising and pledging change. But issues have continued and after starting his career at the Echo in July, Tom Burgess has picked up the baton with this story – delving into new issues. Despite his inexperience, he has managed to gain the trust of a number of contacts – with one revealed what was a staggering piece of information involved a team of paramedics who had responded to a 999 incident and declared a woman had died from injuries. But shockingly when the woman’s ‘body’ was taken to the hospital she was found to be alive. The blunder was eventually acknowledged by bosses after continuous probing from Tom and we were able to exclusively real this remarkable story. The story was subsequently followed up by national newspapers, TV and Radio – including BBC, Sky and ITV news who all sent crews to cover the story. Tom Burgess was asked to appear on Radio 4 to explain how he came to the story and his subsequent discovery. Continuing to pursue lines of inquiry – Tom also found the woman had subsequently died. Service bosses apologised to the woman’s family for the serious error – there is a now an inquiry as to how it happened. Police have also been brought in to investigate the incident. There is absolutely no doubt this would not have been brought to light without the Northern Echo and the determination and journalistic tenacity of Tom Burgess.