A woman who drove herself to A&E with a head injury while she was almost three times over the legal drink drive limit has been cleared of wrongdoing.
Claudia Kinsey, 36, had knocked back a full bottle of rose wine at home when she tripped and banged her head on a fireplace, but she opted against calling for 999 as she feared she would have to wait hours for an ambulance.
So she decided to make the eight-mile trip to Macclesfield Hospital in Cheshire where she was treated for a minor wound to her head and was asked to give a breath sample, which showed she had 95 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
Kinsey, who works as cabin crew, appeared at Stockport magistrates court, where she was facing a driving ban but was cleared after a doctor testified her illicit actions in herself seeking immediate medical treatment during the pandemic and in the face of NHS guidance about calling 999 were 'appropriate'.
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She told the court that she had ‘never seen that amount of blood before in her life’ and that she couldn’t ask her partner to drive her as he had drink even more than she had.
Kinsey said: “I did have a bottle of wine to drink and at the time had been on a very strict diet. But I felt 3/10 drunk and that the hit to my head sobered me up. I thought I was going to die.
''I knew an ambulance would have taken a long time. I did not want to bother the ambulance service because of COVID. I did not want them to come to me instead of someone else.
''Covid was rife at the time and ambulances were under so much pressure, I did not want to bother them. I made no attempts to phone 999, neither did my partner.
“I know it may sound silly, but I was in a panic. We had only moved to the house the week before and the garden was not fenced. I needed to get to the hospital because I needed help. I thought it was the right thing to do. I have never been in trouble before and never even had a parking ticket.''
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Dr Michael Gregory, a lecturer in forensic medicine who was called by Kinsey to give evidence said: ''The NHS website will say it is standard for anyone with a medical head injury to go to A&E.
''Moreover a person who has been drinking and who has a head injury should always seek immediate medical attention. If any ambulance had been called, crew would have dispatched depending on the category and other priorities. They would not have been able to give treatment in the house and they would have taken her straight to hospital.
''As it turned out the head injury was not serious but she would not have known that until she was assessed. It was appropriate for her to seek medical assistance. Had she had rang 111, they would have told her to go to A&E.”
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