An air hostess who drove herself to A&E after drinking a bottle of rosé and hitting her head on a fireplace has been cleared of all wrongdoing after claiming she thought there were no ambulances because of Covid.
Claudia Kinsey, 36, was almost three times the alcohol limit during the eight-mile journey in a Jeep 4×4 from her country cottage to Macclesfield Hospital in Cheshire during the third national lockdown last February.
She was treated for a minor wound by a nurse after slipping and banging the back of her head while dancing with her boyfriend.
But Kinsey was then asked to give a breath sample with tests showing she had 95 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
At Stockport Magistrates Court, she admitted drinking a full bottle of rosé before getting behind the wheel and faced a road ban for driving with excess alcohol.
But she was found not guilty after a doctor testified her illicit actions in herself seeking immediate medical treatment during the coronavirus pandemic and in the face of NHS guidance about calling 999 were ‘appropriate.’
Claudia Kinsey (pictured outside court with her partner), 36, was almost three times the alcohol limit during the eight-mile journey in a Jeep 4×4 from her country cottage to Macclesfield Hospital in Cheshire
The incident occurred at 1am on February 21 last year after Kinsey, who is a flight attendant for a ‘private airline’, had been enjoying a night in with her partner Carl Backhouse.
She told the hearing: ‘It was Carl’s birthday and we got dressed up and had a tapas evening and a few drinks.
‘We then moved into the study, we were dancing and I slipped as I had tights on. There is a fire place with very sharp edges and I hit the back of my head on it.
‘I then panicked as there was blood on the floor and all over my face.’
She said her partner could not have driven because he ‘had a lot more to drink than she did’, and that he was searching for their dog who had run out of the door.
Kinsey added that she is medically trained so wanted to seek medical assistant straight away because it was a head injury.
She continued: ‘There was so much blood, I thought I needed someone to look at it and I just wanted to get to the hospital as fast as possible.
‘I did not know the neighbours and I did not call 999 as I thought it would have taken a long time for an ambulance to get there and I did not want to trouble them.
‘I thought the guidance was not to call 999 because of Covid and ours is not an easy property to find in any event and we had not used taxis before at that property.
‘I was so scared and I have never seen that amount of blood before in my life. When it is your own head, it is frightening and I drove straight to the hospital as I live a ten-minute drive away. I thought a taxi would have taken far too long and they wouldn’t have taken me anyway with all of the blood and sometimes there is no phone signal.’
Kinsey (pictured above) was treated for a minor wound by a nurse after slipping and banging the back of her head while dancing with her boyfriend
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She added: ‘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.’
In a statement Nicole Constantine, a nurse at the hospital, said: ‘At around 1.30am I was on the triage desk when the defendant presented herself with a minor head injury saying she had slipped and banged her head.
‘It was clear she was intoxicated and she said she had drank a bottle of wine. I noticed a set of car keys in her lap and asked if she had driven.
‘She said “yes, there was nothing else I could have done.” I was concerned she would drive home and alerted a police officer.’
Peter Conroy, prosecuting, said: ‘When she slipped and hit her head, her immediate concern was not her safety, it was her dog. You may feel more compelled to drive to hospital if she had rang 999 or 111 and they said there was a long wait.
‘However at no point does she try and ring an ambulance or a taxi. She thought “oh well, I will just jump in the car and I will be in the hospital overnight and I will drive home the next day.”‘
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.
She said her partner could not have driven because he ‘had a lot more to drink than she did’, and that he was searching for their dog who had run out of the door
‘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.’
Kinsey’s lawyer John Dye added: ‘She was drunk and driving but she drove because she thought it was the best thing for her to do. She thought she may die, believed she had a really serious injury and she needed to seek urgent medical attention.
‘It is a fair point she should have considered an ambulance but because of the risk of COVID, she did not know how long it would take for one to get there.
‘She was at the time under a very stressful situation and a taxi would not have taken someone with that much blood coming from her head. This was a woman who has made a split-second decision in a moment of panic.’
JP Pauline McCardle said: ‘The defendant was impelled to react how she did because she had cause to belief that death or serious injury could result.
‘She was aware of the government advice in not calling out ambulances and she did not know her neighbours. We find her actions were not unreasonable or disproportionate.
‘In the agony of the moment a sober individual would have acted in the same way.’
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