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Original poster

To wonder if this doesn't upset you, nothing will

306 replies

ThirdWorld · 21/03/2023 19:21

I've name changed for this as it's very identifying.

I live in a small village and and as a treat after a long hard day at work popped into my local pub for dinner.

Lying on the floor was an elderly woman. She was covered with a warm blanket. She had tripped and fallen at lunchtime, and obviously badly hurt herself.

An ambulance was called at 12:30, she is still lying there in the middle of the pub waiting for an ambulance.

I've obviously read about how broken our NHS is and even read the thread on here where a poster had written about her aunt who had fallen and was waiting for about 12 hours for an ambulance. But reading about it and actually seeing it for real is even more heartbreaking.

This poor old woman has been lying on a cold wooden floor for 7 hours! The owners and bar staff have been amazing and are looking after her. Well as much as they can.

I can't tell you how useless I feel. There is nothing anyone can do. The woman has obviously been refusing food or fluid in fear of wetting herself.

I know from reading the thread I mentioned previously that there is nothing anyone can do but wait.

As we left they were getting her a pad to relieve herself. In the middle of a pub!!!

This is 21st century Britain! I don't know what I'm expecting from this thread, am tempted to call the local press to see if the publicity could hurry things along, but that would probably be even more humiliating for her.

This woman has no family and is cold, miserable and in pain lying in the middle of a pub.

I just can't believe our country has fallen to this. God knows when an ambulance will arrive. She will end up getting more dehydrated and probably go into shock. And there is nothing anyone can do.

So distressing to see and my heart bleeds for the poor woman. Just prey that none of your relatives ever have a fall.

Let's hope an ambulance comes soon.

OP posts:
Over40Overdating · 22/03/2023 08:03

@ThirdWorld Glad to hear the ambulance finally came.

Sadly a lot of the replies you got are from people who voted and will continue to vote for the ghouls in the Tory party who have created this situation. They don’t want to believe they are culpable or that this could happen to them too so it must be your fault or the pubs fault for not solving the problem instead. Nevermind if you had driven to hospital your thread would have been about the wait to be seen.

People who voted and will continue to vote Tory have created this mess and have blood on their hands. It’s really that simple.

hattie43 · 22/03/2023 08:11

Horrific , how have we come to this .

Snowsurprised · 22/03/2023 08:17

Tory have created this mess and have blood on their hands. It’s really that simple.

It’s absolutely disgraceful that someone would be left for hours like that in a supposedly civilised wealthy country. Just disgusting and shocking and I don’t know why the whole country isn’t angry about this. They are running the NHS into the ground.

24KaratCucumber · 22/03/2023 08:18

hattie43 · 22/03/2023 08:11

Horrific , how have we come to this .

People voted Tory & Brexit.

Would it be different under Labour? Or if the Brexit vote was different?
Who knows.
that £350million for the NHS lie certainly worked on dimwits, remember saying it wouldn't happen and being called project fear?
Well... There we go.

Snowsurprised · 22/03/2023 08:22

People criticising the pub or OP here are just as bad. Stop fiddling while Rome burns.

ZeldaWillTellYourFortune · 22/03/2023 08:35

Gymmum82 · 21/03/2023 19:26

Unless very severely injured I’d wonder why no one picked her up and took her to a&e themselves. I know what I’d prefer and it’s not lying on a floor for 7 hours

This.

NamelessNancy · 22/03/2023 09:15

"Things were just as bad under labour" and "they're all as bad as each other" always get trotted out on threads like this. Really? I honestly don't remember the state of the country being anything like this pre 2010.

I know it's a bit of a tangent but take food banks as an example. I couldn't remember having heard of them in the UK pre 2010. Just looked up the numbers. Trussel trust, who run the largest network, had 35 centres in 2010/11. By 2019/20 this had risen to 1300.

The Tories are running the country into the ground and the NHS in particular. Tory voters this is on you.

FoxCorner · 22/03/2023 09:42

It's basic first aid that you are not supposed to move someone who may have broken their hip etc as you can cause further injury. Being put into a car can also cause further injury.

Logicoutofthewindow · 22/03/2023 09:55

NamelessNancy · 22/03/2023 09:15

"Things were just as bad under labour" and "they're all as bad as each other" always get trotted out on threads like this. Really? I honestly don't remember the state of the country being anything like this pre 2010.

I know it's a bit of a tangent but take food banks as an example. I couldn't remember having heard of them in the UK pre 2010. Just looked up the numbers. Trussel trust, who run the largest network, had 35 centres in 2010/11. By 2019/20 this had risen to 1300.

The Tories are running the country into the ground and the NHS in particular. Tory voters this is on you.

This.

Yet the denials and 'whataboutery' continue. When will people wake up to the fact that the Tories have caused most of the mess.

Kendodd · 22/03/2023 12:26

Logicoutofthewindow · 22/03/2023 09:55

This.

Yet the denials and 'whataboutery' continue. When will people wake up to the fact that the Tories have caused most of the mess.

Show quote history

Indeed!
I remember, before the Tories can to power my local supermarket had a food bin that people could put pet food in for the local animal shelter. A couple of years after it was replaced with a bin for a food bank that'd been set up for hungry people.

Kendodd · 22/03/2023 12:31

I also remember though, the BBC visited a food bank just before the 2019 GE. The users of the food bank all cheerily said they be voting for Boris.

I did watch in astonishment, thinking, you're in a fucking food bank because of these fuckers. Worse was to come. During covid, I watched people on TV actually burying their relatives while saying what a good job the Tories were doing.

NamelessNancy · 22/03/2023 12:46

Kendodd · 22/03/2023 12:31

I also remember though, the BBC visited a food bank just before the 2019 GE. The users of the food bank all cheerily said they be voting for Boris.

I did watch in astonishment, thinking, you're in a fucking food bank because of these fuckers. Worse was to come. During covid, I watched people on TV actually burying their relatives while saying what a good job the Tories were doing.

Mindboggling isn't it?

Kendodd · 22/03/2023 13:17

And as for the nonsense of 'at least they know what a women is'. This whole trans thing has exploded UNDER THE TORIES. I don't remember trans women in female prisons under Labour. Self ID was a Tory idea, Boris Johnson reduced the cost of a GRC to £5 and we effectively have self ID now anyway. Not to mention the fact they've practically legalised rape and push so many women and children into real poverty.

Labour did a lot wrong, most importantly the Iraq war (wholeheartedly supported by the Tories) but let's not pretend public services and life for ordinary people wasn't much better with them in charge.

Teatotal2 · 22/03/2023 17:54

I walked through our hospital recently for an outpatient appointment.
I was so shocked as there were so many ambulances outside and paramedics lining the corridors, accompanying patients on stretchers. There were no staff to process/ triage/ treat the incoming emergencies and the paramedics could not leave until this happened.
It was heartbreaking for people left lying on trolleys in corridors, scared, vulnerable and unwell for all to see, and so frustrating for the staff who trying to manage this, as well as the paramedics desperate to get back out to respond to calls.
The NHS is not broken, it is being slowly eroded until we all think it better to sacrifice what little we have to pay for our healthcare.

Silvers11 · 22/03/2023 17:57

@ThirdWorld So glad the ambulance finally turned up after 12 hours. Poor Lady. I hope she will be ok.

Do you know how she is? And how are you after helping her?

onlythesparrow · 22/03/2023 17:58

Heartbreaking. My dad waited 3-4 hours for an ambulance when he was having a heart attack. Then waited outside the hospital in the ambulance, then in a corridor on the stretcher. He's lucky to still be here!

cavalier · 22/03/2023 18:03

The poor lady 😢

we had a car crash outside our house a few years ago … .. it actually sounded like a bomb had gone off 🤦🏻‍♀️ awful avout 4 years ago
The driver ran and left his girlfriend in there
drugs related
it was a freezing November night
we didn’t realise it was drugs related but knew something dodgy as the driver ran The police turned up … I had to get a blanket for the girl .. she couldn’t move.. she asked for another blanket so I got her one … she was somebody’s daughter and I was mortified that nobody else had offered her one .. an hour and half later ambulance turned up …
if this had been an elderly or vulnerable person they probably would have been gone or near to gone before the ambulance arrived

I got one blanket back but warmth is warmth ..
they were both charged etc ..
it was perishingly cold … I don’t think I would have made it out if that had been me
This was before Covid and issues we have now

Becgoz7 · 22/03/2023 18:04

BillyMack · 21/03/2023 19:23

It’s also upsetting to realise that there are people in a worse state of need and therefore a higher priority.

Not necessarily. They will be sitting outside the hospital waiting to get in. We were "rushed" in to resus highest priority but the paramedics had to clean the bed and find bedding before we were seen. There was 8 ambulances sitting outside waiting for the patients to be passed over!

nuttynet · 22/03/2023 18:05

This makes me really furious

Please write to your MP about this

nuttynet · 22/03/2023 18:06

I wonder how much money the pub would have lost by closing?

Hospitality is just another sector on its knees

spuddel · 22/03/2023 18:16

It's upsetting but not shocking. We've had people screaming for longer, harder lockdowns, NHS staff striking for more cash and there is not even a cigarette paper between the tories and labour. Until we stop this two horse race which is the same shit, different day, we are only going to get more of this.

devilsice123 · 22/03/2023 18:23

Poor lady, I hope she got the ambulance and help in the end. I was watching a programme on Netflix about people in intensive/end of life care in America and this lady needed to go to hospital and her daughter took her in the car as she didn’t want to pay the 2,000 dollars charge before you’ve any treatment. Her daughter took her and she flatlined in the back of the car and she had to resuss her for 10-15 minutes. I know our NHS isn’t perfect but it’s better than some. The staff try their hardest.

ellyeth · 22/03/2023 18:49

I don't think you are supposed to move someone when they have fallen, in case you cause more damage.

Pubs are having a hard enough time at the moment. From what the OP says, the people there are doing everything they can to make this lady comfortable. I assume the people running the pub will move others away from this lady to allow her some privacy.

Yes, the state of the NHS is terrible and, apart from being a huge worry to everybody - and particularly older people - it must be so very demoralising for staff. Thank this rotten government for that.

Makingupfactstosuitmyagenda · 22/03/2023 19:02

You are right. That’s appalling and upsetting. I wonder if it was actually worse for her that it was in the pub as she may have been classed as in a safe place
with people to assist?

I’ve waited 5 hours with my own parent. To those of you saying that you’d have done something. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. First, the issue of lifting and causing damage. Second, I don’t know about anyone else but no one told me at the start that it would be 5 hours so with each passing minute you think it is MORE likely the ambulance will come not less. What’s the cut off point? Finally, it’s not like picking up a toddler. My parent is 18+ stone, unable to bend their knees or push themselves up at all. There’s a reasons ambulance personnel are trained.

Swiftbushome · 22/03/2023 19:09

It's bloody tragic. I hope the poor lady is OK. My granny was on the floor so long after a fall that she very sadly died the next day. Her kidneys and heart were just overwhelmed from toxins that were released from her muscles being squashed for so long. It was awful.
She lived alone though and we don't know how long she'd been on the floor. My dad went round every day, though, so it must have been less than 24 hours. So in her case it wasn't because of a lack of ambulance but it genuinely does become an emergency after a certain amount of time (I think it's 4 hours?) So the priority of the call needs to be upgraded after that time. I really dont know why that isn't done.