A coroner has called for urgent reforms to asthma attack guidelines after a 22-year-old mixed-race man died due to a misunderstanding during an emergency call.
What sort?
An inquest into his death found that because Mr Barr had a darker skin tone, the emergency call handler's reference to whether he was a 'deathly colour' was misunderstood, despite him being critically unwell, with lips turning blue.
Becoming pale is a common physical warning sign of an asthma attack, as well as a change in colour, dark circles near the eyes, a flushed face, and runny eyes. However, due to Mr Barr's naturally darker complexion, the Coventry coroner concluded that the call handler should have asked questions about Mr Barr's lips rather than the colour of his skin.
But how on earth was he to know the person who was the subject of the call was mixed-race?!?
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