A 62-year-old woman, famed as Malta’s Playboy Bunny, died last month after her bedside medical equipment failed during the nationwide blackout, Times of Malta has learnt.

Madeline Dixon suffered from advanced emphysema and died at Mater Dei Hospital after her ventilator system was knocked out by a power cut on August 12.

The island was plunged into darkness after a fault in a subterranean cable led to an explosion at a major power distribution centre.

Ms Dixon’s twin Mary Collinson, who starred in a number of films with her sister, told Times of Malta her sister had been left waiting for medical assistance for more than an hour due to a lack of emergency personnel during the 14-hour blackout.

“My sister could still be alive if she was treated in time. She was left waiting by the paramedics who refused to break down her door until the police arrived.

She was left waiting by paramedics – this is negligence

“It was chaos and this is negligence,” she said, speaking from her home in Milan.

When contacted, a government spokesman denied the claims, saying Ms Dixon was treated according to established protocols.

“The emergency team acted the same way they would have with any case like that,” he said.

Asked why the rescue personnel had not broken down the door when they arrived, the spokesman said the paramedics waited for members of the Civil Protection Department after assessing the woman’s condition.

“She was conscious throughout and the paramedics were speaking to her as she stood on her balcony,” he said.

“She did not appear to be in imminent danger and so the decision was taken to wait for the other personnel,” the spokesman said, adding that the woman’s electronic intercom system was offline due to the blackout.

Rescuers eventually entered Ms Dixon’s apartment through her first floor balcony and escorted her to hospital.

Ms Collinson, however, is claiming hospital staff indicated that her sister would have had a better chance of surviving if she had been brought in sooner.

“My sister couldn’t breathe without that ventilator.

“It went offline a few days prior to the incident too and she was gasping for air within minutes.

“I spoke to people at Mater Dei who said she would have been better off had she been brought in sooner,” she insisted.

Medical sources confirmed that although the woman was under treatment for emphysema, she had not been deemed to be a high-risk patient.

Ms Dixon was admitted as a “priority two patient”, meaning urgent, but not in imminent danger. She received treatment in a standard ward, and died two days after being brought in, the sources said. They added that the family had not come forward with any formal complaints for more than four weeks.

This has not consoled her distraught sister, who felt compelled to speak out after reading a Times of Malta report exposing a shortage of police personnel in St Julian’s.

“This is a problem that is affecting people’s lives. It took my sister away from me and it needs to stop,” she said.