Health Min­is­ter Dr Fuad Khan says he will be tak­ing a harsh de­ci­sion re­gard­ing the am­bu­lance ser­vice fol­low­ing a tod­dler's death last Fri­day. Akeel Si­mon, who was just 21 months old, died in his moth­er's arm while a good Samar­i­tan fought to take them through heavy traf­fic along the Gulf City Link Road, La Ro­maine, to the hos­pi­tal. Akeel had down's syn­drome, three holes in his heart and an en­larged liv­er. His moth­er, Sta­cy Si­mon, 25, of Hap­py Val­ley, Erin, was rush­ing him to hos­pi­tal be­cause of a high fever. Si­mon said an am­bu­lance re­fused to as­sist her when she flagged it down and asked for help af­ter the car in which she was trav­el­ling broke down.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Dr Khan ex­pressed his deep­est con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly and friends of the tod­dler on his un­time­ly pass­ing. "I am dis­gust­ed with the lack of com­pas­sion. I will be tak­ing a harsh de­ci­sion with re­spect to the am­bu­lance ser­vice," he said. "As I have in­di­cat­ed, there is a need for de­cen­tral­is­ing the am­bu­lance ser­vice, plac­ing it in­to the am­bit of the Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ties (RHAs). It is time that this in­hu­mane be­hav­iour by the am­bu­lance ser­vice be brought to an­swer."