Mum deteriorated during 12-hour wait

A WOMAN in agonizing pain waited almost 12 hours for an ambulance even though a GP told her it would be there within the hour.

- VIVIENNE AITKE

A WOMAN in agonizing pain waited almost 12 hours for an ambulance even though a GP told her it would be there within the hour.

Letitia Brown, 68, had been suffering for days with sickness and diarrhea and her family saw her condition deteriorating.

But they told of their increasing panic as the wait for an ambulance dragged on all day and night.

Her daughter Elaine, 41, said: “The doctor was here just after 11 am and went out to his car for a while to phone an ambulance. He was back in before noon and told us it would be here within the hour.

“It didn’t arrive until 11.45 pm, by which time my mum’s condition had really deteriorated. She could no longer walk to the bathroom next door to her bedroom.

“My mum is one of those women who just get on with things, she never complains, so when she first asked for a doctor, we knew there must be something seriously wrong.

“She had been not quite right for a couple of weeks but there were a lot of sickness and diarrhea bugs around at the time so we didn’t think too much of it.”