A PARAMEDIC who failed to make basic checks on a patient who complained of severe headaches and later died has been suspended for six months.

Experienced ambulance worker John Johnson, from Leigh, had been called to Sharon Caffrey's house in Fallowfield, Manchester, where the 41-year-old was suffering headaches and vomiting.

But he failed to properly take the patient's temperature or assess her pupil reaction with a torch when he treated her on December 19, 2005, a Health Professions Council (HPC) panel found.

Mr Johnson, who qualified as a paramedic in 1993, then urged her to walk downstairs but she collapsed on the way. He then tried to put her in a carry chair but her body was too rigid.

Miss Caffrey went into a coma in the ambulance on the way to Manchester Royal Infirmary and died five days later, having suffered a brain haemorrhage.

The HPC suspended Mr Johnson, who has been demoted to an ambulance technician since the incident, after hearing evidence from Miss Caffrey's partner Dave Edwards, of Prestwich.

Panel chairman Martin Ryder said: "Mr Johnson failed to perform to a standard he knew he should have been working to.

"He handled the patient in a way that failed to acknowledge the seriousness of her condition".

A review panel will assess whether further action, including the possibility of Mr Johnson being struck off, should be taken before the suspension is complete.