Woman, 32, dies of caffeine overdose after ‘unacceptable’ 7-hour wait for ambulance
Student’s fatal caffeine overdose initially dismissed as vertigo
- Christina Lackmann, a 32-year-old biomedical science student from Australia, died in April 2021 from a caffeine overdose at her home after a nearly seven-hour wait for an ambulance.
- Lackmann called emergency services, feeling dizzy and numb, but her call was categorised as non-urgent as the emergency services operator believed it was a case of vertigo, leading to significant delays in medical assistance.
- Paramedics were assigned to her twice but were redirected to higher-priority emergencies, resulting in her being found dead in her bathroom hours after her initial call.
- A toxicology report confirmed lethal levels of caffeine in her system, and the coroner concluded her death was a consequence of ingesting caffeine tablets.
- An expert stated Lackmann likely would have survived with timely treatment if emergency services had inquired about medication, and the ambulance response was deemed an excessive and unacceptable delay.