On a Friday afternoon towards the end of March 2015, Marcus’ seven-year-old daughter was diagnosed with tonsillitis by the family’s GP with a temperature of 40.3. Later that same evening back at home in Andover, she developed what seemed to be a non-blanching rash; such a symptom can be associated with meningococcal septicaemia – the leading infectious cause of death in children and a disease that can kill a healthy person of any age within hours of their first symptoms. Recognising the need to talk to someone immediately about his daughter’s worsening condition, Marcus contacted SCAS’ 111 service.
A few days after using SCAS’ service, Marcus emailed our Chief Executive, Will Hancock, full of praise for all the members of the SCAS team that responded that evening:
“Within 10 minutes of us calling 111 a CFR (Community First Responder) – Richard – was with us. About 10 minutes later an ambulance arrived and Nathalie, Grace and Danny got to work checking over our daughter and generally reassuring us. Thankfully she turned out to be ok but you can probably imagine how very concerned we were at the time.
I just wanted to give you some feedback on your team who attended my daughter – they were brilliant! Your crew were calm, professional, competent and, equally important, human.
In the nicest possible way I hope I don’t need to call on your services again. But if I do, it gives me confidence that these guys are part of your team.”