Hillsborough Inquests: Injured fans 'not triaged', says nurse

Jonathon Owens had driven to the match with friends

Hillsborough disaster casualties arrived "in huge numbers and very, very quickly", a nurse who gave fans first aid on the pitch has said.

Nobody was available to "triage" the injured to prioritise treatment, Mandy Harris told the new inquests.

She gave evidence as the hearings into the 1989 tragedy heard about one of the 96 to die, 18-year-old Jonathon Owens.

A fan said he was "convinced" Jonathon was alive after the terrace crush but a police officer said he was "lifeless".

Mr Owens, a clerical assistant from Chester, had driven to the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989 with friends.

They included Peter Burkett, 24, who also died.

Mrs Harris was a registered nurse who had gone to watch the match from the North Stand.

'Hope for help'

In footage timed after 15:35, she was seen treating casualties in front of the Spion Kop opposite to the Leppings Lane terraces where the fatal crush had taken place.

She said: "People were being carried down the pitch in huge numbers and very, very quickly. There was nobody there to triage what was happening and there was nobody there to give you any handover.

"The urgency was to get them away, take them to the other end of the pitch, hope that there was somebody there that could help and then run back for more.

"So the people that were arriving, you had no sense of when they had actually stopped breathing... and it was not possible to gauge."

She agreed with Mark George QC, representing Mr Owens' family, that she was seen giving him "vigorous" chest compressions.

Mrs Harris said she spoke to a man giving first aid to a casualty, likely to have been Mr Owens, because he was doing it "incorrectly".

He "kept arguing with her" and "a lot of time was wasted", she said.

Fatal crushing broke out at the Leppings Lane end of Hillsborough stadium on 15 April 1989

The jury also heard from Charles Daniels, a Liverpool fan who survived the crush and helped carry Mr Owens from the Leppings Lane end.

Mr Owens was seen inside pen three at that end of the stadium.

Mr Daniels said: "In my head now, I can't remember if Jonathon was alive or it was our hope that he was alive.

"All I can remember now is just an impression that to me he appeared to be alive. I can't remember anything more.

"Looking back over that time, whether I thought his chest was moving or he was making a sound, I really just can't remember.

"I was convinced at the time that Jonathon was still alive, yes."

'Motionless'

Mr Daniels said he watched as a male police officer gave Jonathon mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

That lasted for "about a minute", after which the officer "stopped or he had made a conclusion that Jonathon had actually died", Mr Daniels said.

He added: "I had no first aid qualification. I just felt completely inadequate and useless at that moment.

"I just wish that I could have done more."

A police officer who also helped to carry Mr Owens said he was "definitely motionless and lifeless" when he saw him.

The inquests in Warrington, Cheshire, continue.

Who were the 96 victims?

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