A distraught York father today told how he had to beg emergency doctors to attend after his tiny new-born son turned purple and began gasping for breath.

Terry Brown and his wife Gillian: could not believe what was happening.

Terry Brown said he was beside himself with desperation as he cradled four-week-old Joshua in his arms last night and pleaded with doctors for help.

When one was finally despatched, Mr Brown said he took one look at the baby and immediately took him to casualty, where medics sliced off his tiny vest with scissors and began emergency treatment.

Joshua, who was born seven weeks prematurely, has now been transferred to Leeds General Infirmary, where he was today stable in a specialist baby ward.

Mr Brown said: "We could not believe what was happening. We needed help. Joshua was going purple, he was freezing cold and he was not breathing properly."

Mr Brown, 33, and his wife Gillian, 29, of Alder Way, New Earswick, York, claim the emergency doctor service was reluctant to send out a medic, advising them to take Joshua to hospital themselves.

But Mr Brown, who also has a 16-month-old daughter, Zoe, said: "My wife had just had an emergency caesarean and our daughter was here. How would we get him to hospital? Would the traffic have been OK? We just needed help and we had to phone twice and beg and beg and beg to get it.

"When a doctor eventually came, he went wide-eyed when he saw Joshua and rushed out to his car to get an oxygen mask. He was visibly shaken. He rushed him to casualty. What kind of emergency do you need to get an emergency doctor?

"A spokesman for North Yorkshire Emergency Doctor service said: "The advice given to the family was to take their son to hospital, but they insisted on a doctor coming out. Our advice turned out to be the correct advice because the child was subsequently admitted to casualty. If they had not waited for the emergency doctor, the child would have been admitted more quickly."

He added that the service had responded to 320,000 calls in the last year, with only 180 complaints. The service investigated all complaints according to official NHS guidelines.

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