Amazon warehouse worker died on the job - his angry family say 'we've seen the CCTV, we haven't got the truth'

The family of an Amazon worker who died in hospital after collapsing during his shift at its warehouse in Swansea have relived the moment they discovered the tragic news, and their two-year long battle to find out the truth of what happened to him. Martin Vaughan, was working at the Ffordd Amazon site off Fabian Way on September 20, 2023, when he collapsed mid-shift. He was taken to Morriston Hospital, where he tragically died the following day. The 52-year-old, from of Water Street in Neath, had two children, Rhys and Caitlin, and maintained a good relationship with his ex-partner Claire Williams. The former Cefn Hengoed School pupil was once a UPS employee, before he began working for Amazon as a warehouse associate, a job he held for around seven years and enjoyed, as it suited his lifestyle, and allowed him to spend more time going on walks with his beloved dog, Lola. Never miss a Swansea story by signing up to our newsletter here . Recalling the day Mr Vaughan died, Ms Williams said: "We'd spoken to Martin at around teatime. Our daughter had found out she was pregnant two days before. He was doing overtime, and I said to him 'You'd best do overtime, because the pram that she's going to want it going to be expensive', and we were laughing and joking about that, and he was like 'Don't tell me, I know, I know'. "At that point he was fine, absolutely fine, and I'd seen him the day before and he seemed normal to me, absolutely normal. "In the evening, someone tried contacting our daughter on Facebook to say 'Your dad is unwell' and that he had been taken to Morriston Hospital. The next thing I know, Morriston Hospital had called Caitlin and said that she needed to come, and to bring the family with her, because Martin was unwell." Caitlin, who was in Merthyr at the time, immediately called her mum, screaming in fear, to relay the news. Miss Williams and Rhys made their way to Morriston Hospital as quickly as they could. "As I got there and walked in, they looked at me and took me down the corridor, and I just thought, 'This is not good'," Miss Williams said. "That's when they told us he had died. "It was absolutely devastating. Although we weren't still together, he was my go-to if I needed to moan, or he'd ring me if he needed something. "I waited for Caitlin to arrive, and I told her that he had passed away. Telling the kids was one of the worst things I've ever had to do in my life. Caitlin was pregnant at the time, and upset, crying, and I told her, obviously, it was awful, but that she would have to stay calm, because she was pregnant. My son kept asking me, 'why, why', and I just couldn't answer it." Ms Williams described how her family would "never get over" losing Mr Vaughan. She said: "He's left a huge hole in our hearts, because he was such a big character. "There's not a day that goes by where we don't talk about him, or one of the kids will do something and it will be like: 'That's your father, that is'. I don't think we'll ever get over losing Martin." Reeling from the sudden, tragic news, Mr Vaughan's family were in complete confusion as to what had happened. "We just did not know at that point," she said. It was a report on WalesOnline telling of a 'thorough investigation' at the site that led Miss Williams to dig deeper into the circumstances of what happened to him. She said: "When that came out, we got hold of Amazon and said it needed to be discussed. We went down there and we were told that he had collapsed and there were lots of different stories - he had been clutching his chest, clutching his side, he had been sick, but we didn't really know what had happened. "At the end of the day, the kids just wanted the truth to know why their father died, and we needed to know why he wasn't with us. I questioned everything. Earlier this month, a seven-day jury inquest was held at Swansea's Guildhall to establish the circumstances into Mr Vaughan's death. It heard witness statements that he had "appeared to be fine", but then suddenly collapsed, having suffered a cardiac arrest. There had been a 14 minute delay before someone discovered him, which was followed by a 32-minute delay in an ambulance reaching him, having initially arrived at the site's lorry park. Security guards had helped make the 999 call. Mr Vaughan's medical cause of death was given as ventricular cardiac arrhythmia caused by heart hypertrophy. The jury was asked whether there had been a delay in a 'red priority response' ambulance service call, to which it responded 'yes', but when asked whether it felt the delay contributed toward his death, the jury returned the verdict: 'no'. The conclusion was given as death by natural causes. Ms Williams said: "I questioned all the witness statements, every one was different. There was a delay in the ambulance, a delay in someone finding him - it took 14 minutes for someone to find him - and then they were phoning an ambulance between security and stuff, when there was four first aiders with him. "Although we know what happened, because we have seen CCTV, the questions the jury was asked were nothing to do with what happened at Amazon. "We've come away from the inquest feeling angry still. Yes, we have a cause of death for Martin, but maybe if we hadn't had a jury, the coroner would have ruled different. "I intend to seek legal advice. I have a gut feeling that we don't have the full information. I need someone to tell me that 'there's nothing else they could have done', but until I hear that from someone professional, other than Amazon, I will take the verdict, and the kids will take it." Paying tribute to Martin, Ms Williams described him as a "people's person" who would talk to anybody. She said: "He got on with everybody and was such a loveable character. Everywhere we'd go he would find someone to talk to. "He was a brilliant sense of humour and was a bit of a joker. "He was a brilliant father. We had two children together, twins, Rhys and Caitlin. He also loved his dog, a husky named Lola, and they'd walk miles. It was him and the dog every time. "We've got a lovely little grandson now. He would have made a fantastic granddad. "We just take things day by day. You try and get on with your life as I know he'd not have wanted his kids to mope around, but it's hard with little things like Roman being born, and another one on its way now, he's missing all of this, and he was so young. That's the awful thing about it. He had so much to live for." A spokesman for Amazon said: "We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident and our thoughts remain with Martin’s family and friends. "We’re continuing to support colleagues with anything they need." Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here . We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice.