A MUM died of suspected coronavirus hours after paramedics visited her at home and told her she was “not a priority”.
Kayla Williams, 36, died at her flat in Peckham, South London on Saturday, a day after her husband called 999 when she fell ill.
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Her husband, Fabian Williams, told The Guardian that mum-of-three Kayla was suffering a cough, high fever and severe chest and stomach pains.
Documents seen by The Guardian are said to confirm Kayla suspected of having been infected with Covid-19.
It comes as Britain’s grim death toll climbed again today to 434 after 11 more deaths in Wales and Scotland and 8,176 people infected by the disease so far.
Yesterday, 87 more deaths were recorded in just 24 hours across the UK with 143 deaths already in London.
Mr Williams, 49, said: “I called 999 because my wife was breathless, she was vomiting and she had pains in her stomach.
“As I was talking to them she was getting worse and they told me to put her on the floor and to make her body flat.”
A paramedic who arrived tested Kayla and told him “the hospital won’t take her, she is not a priority”.
But Kayla deteriorated the following day and Mr Williams found her dead in the front room.
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He had earlier helped her to dress and fed her some soup before finding her head down and slumped over in the front room.
Mr Williams added: “She was already dead.
“I put her on the ground – because that is what they had told me to do before – and I rang 999 again and they told me to put my hand on her chest and pump her chest.”
Paramedics who arrived a short time later battled in vain to resuscitate his wife.
Police who arrived at his home, would not come in and “stood on the doorstep”.
An undertaker who arrived wrapped his wife in sheeting and placed her in a body bag in line with protocol on infectious disease death.
Mr Williams said: “They put on full forensic suits outside, with full masks, visors and gloves.
“They covered their feet as well. This is when I thought; ‘What’s going on? This is not right.
“I have heard nothing since.
“They have left me here and said I must isolate. They haven’t told me anything else.
“I am a diabetic. I take insulin. All I know is I am supposed to isolate. No one has mentioned her body being tested or anything.”
More than 8,000 people across the UK are infected by the deadly virus – with health authorities expected to release figures for England later.
There are now fears that half of the UK population may have already contracted the virus.
University of Oxford research suggested the disease could have become prevalent in the country two months before the first case was diagnosed.
The finger-prick test, which detects antibodies to the virus in the blood, is able to determine if someone has or has already had Covid-19.
London Ambulance Service (LAS) documents are said to show Kayla was suffering from “Cov 19”, and had “non-productive cough … headache … chest pains all over”.
She was advised to “self-care, use antipyretics, increase food/fluid”, The Guardian reports.
An LAS spokesman said: “We were called at 8.32am on Friday 20 March to reports of a person unwell at an address in Peckham.
“Our clinicians treated a patient and advised them to call back if their condition changed.
“We were called the following day at 3.24pm and sent a number of resources with our first medics arriving in under seven minutes. Sadly, the patient had died. Our sympathy is with the family at this time.
“We are working incredibly hard in these unprecedented times to look after Londoners.”
