Shock as Bingo game continues as pensioner collapses

A bingo hall in North Lanarkshire continued with a nightly bingo game, despite the collapse of an elderly lady whilst the game took place. The Gala Bingo Hall in Coatbridge was unfortunately the venue where the elderly patron fell ill, but the bingo game continued throughout due to company guidelines.

Many bingo players were outraged as the game continued whilst first aiders and then paramedics worked to save the woman’s life. Tragically, she was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. Despite the complaints of many other bingo players, the daughter of the deceased lady backed the staff decision to keep the game going. Linda McKee, who was obviously devastated to lose her mother, described the staff at the bingo hall as a ‘great help’ and felt she was looked after very well, in line with company policies.

When considering the average age of bingo patrons at regular bingo halls, it’s understandable that some may be suffering with a range of ailments. With this in mind, Gala Bingo ensure they have a registered first aider on site but the company policy is to keep games going at all times so as not to cause more distress and panic in the hall. Equally, some bingo games are linked up nationally and so it simply isn’t possible to just halt them mid-game as it affects the game play across the country. Gala Bingo has reiterated that its thoughts are with the family.

Whether this Gala Bingo hall made the right decision will probably be debated furiously amongst the regular clientele but with the backing and the understanding of the family that the staff concerned were just following company procedure, there is hope that nobody will feel that anyone should be accountable. Guidelines for events such as this must be extremely hard to devise and they do need to keep the interests of everybody present in mind.