A UK court has sentenced a paramedic who failed to help a man dying of heart attack to an eight-month suspended sentence and 240 hours of community service.
CCTV footage released by West Midlands Police shows Matt Geary approach Carl Cope, who lay dying metres from the door of Walsall Manor Hospital, and shortly walking off.
ITV News reports that Geary, who was responsible for determining the course of treatment for Cope, initially brought him to the accident and emergency department. Cope then left the waiting room to get a drink in a nearby shop, collapsing in the car park as he returned.
Geary, sitting in an ambulance, saw Cope, approached him, and asked hospital security to deal with him. He then returned to his ambulance.
When the security staff arrived five minutes later, Cope showed no signs of life.
During the case, the judge called Geary "callous and uncaring," while a police detective said that had he taken action, tragedy might have been avoided:
"... there is a chance that if he had actually done something, then Carl would still be alive today."
