Man dies after missed dispatch delays ambulance response 8 minutes in Hokkaido

A response to an emergency call in Hokkaido was delayed by about eight minutes after ambulance workers failed to notice a dispatch order while clearing snow, in a case involving a man who was later pronounced dead at hospital, local authorities said.

The man was unresponsive at the time the ambulance arrived on Feb 12, according to the fire department in Asahikawa, which has apologized to the man's family for the delay.

But the department said the possibility that the delay contributed to the man's death was "low," citing a doctor at the hospital who said the likely cause was a heart problem known as idiopathic ventricular fibrillation.

The emergency call was received at around 7:17 a.m. and an ambulance dispatch was issued a minute later, but all five rescue workers on duty missed it due to the noise from snow melting equipment and blizzard conditions on the northernmost of Japan's four main islands, according to the department.