What's the longest you have had to wait for an ambulance?7

[OneUmberJoker]

7 hours

I’ve only had to call 999 once, and it took 10 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. On a Saturday night. This was a couple of months ago.

9 hours for my mum, she was too poorly to put in the car. She passed away two days later.

Then 6 hours for my dad with sepsis. He was too poorly to put in the car, plus he could never have sat in the waiting room. He was in hospital for 9 days, but recovered well.

My now 18 year old DD broke her leg when she was 8 on a bike ride, we were in the middle of nowhere and her foot was pointing the wrong way. Dialled 999 and they refused to come out, my brother had to come and get us. She was literally white as a sheet and completely silent, it was horrible. We had to ask a random house to take our bikes in!

This is similar to my experience. The call handler was rude, sarcastic and dismissive. Refused to believe my symptoms or send help. Eventually dh persuaded her to let him speak to her supervisor. I couldn't move or speak due to being in the middle of a heart attack. The second person eventually agreed to send a first responder. Dh literally had to beg. That paramedic radioed for an ambulance. I was lucky to survive. I am still dealing with the mental trauma.

Was this you?
You were hit by a car, found unconscious in the road, somebody called an ambulance and they refused to attend?
There's got to be more to this story surely?

3hrs - sat in middle of the road in the town centre in January with a badly injured elderly gentleman who’d fallen from his electric wheelchair. For 3 hours I knelt on the icy cobbles, in the middle of the road, holding the gentleman’s hand and checking his responses.
I had to even get other passers by to block off the road.
The injured elderly man was very frail, had sustained a head injury with an amount of blood on the back of his skull, was confused (possibly concussed and/or dementia), had diabetes (and was unable to do his bloods or take nutrition whilst stranded all afternoon in the road), and was incontinent of urine (catheterised). Whilst I was in the road caring for him his catheter bag reached capacity. To protect him from becoming saturated in his own urine and then it quickly freezing, I had to call to others to go into the Starbucks and get large paper cups. I then got people to form a ring around us with their coats whilst I emptied the catheter bag into a series of cups and got someone to pour them down the drain in the street.

This poor, bewildered, injured, fail man lay in the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD in the town centre for THREE HOURS! I called 999 eleven times. 😔

He survived. His niece got my contact details and made contact with me to thank me (not needed) and gave me updates on his condition until he was discharged and went into a care home. Such a lovely gentleman. Such a terrible, undignified way to spend some of his final days of his 90 years.

Overnight with a frail elderly woman who'd broken her arm. She was starting to go into shock just before they arrived. We couldn't take her in a car because we were on duty in the adjacent care home at the time, which couldn't be left unstaffed.

My mum waited 14 hours after a stroke in August this year. The ambulance service was made aware it was a suspected stroke. She was advised to get a taxi but couldn't get one to come. I am 600 miles away. She missed the window for clot-busting treatment and died 6 weeks later in hospital after two more strokes.

This should have been prioritised. What is the point of the FAST adverts if you can't get an ambulance to come?

I had the same experience when my elderly DF had a fall. I kept checking on progress with the ambulance service and offered to try to get him to the hospital ourselves, though to be honest I couldn’t have lifted him without hurting myself. They told me to wait and definitely not try to move him myself.

Today 5.5 hours. Regularly given a 3 - 8 hour wait in work. It’s nearly always quicker for people to take themselves here at the moment.

About 6 years ago my husband had a really bad accident wlby slipping on a wet mat. His ankle was just hanging there. They told us 5 hours for an ambulance. Luckily we were with a very strong bloke who picked him up and chucked him in the car so we could get him to a&e. They told us if we had waited for the ambulance, he would have lost the foot. We were so lucky he wasn't just with me as I would not have been able to get him in the car on my own.

2 hours. Was for mental health reasons.

10 hours - elderly person outside on a hard surface in the rain. Nobody could lift them as they had clear fractures. They weren't always conscious during that time. Terrible time. Happened about two years ago.

9 hours with a broken hip - they knew he was laying in the garden

8 hours. couldn't walk so no way I could get there by taxi - I would have had to crawl on hands and knees across the car park and into the hospital which didn't seem very sensible

8 minutes, so I’m told.
I was in a psychiatric hospital and had taken a massive overdose. A nurse found me and called the ambulance. I wasn’t expected to survive the night but unfortunately did.

Thankfully I've never had had to ring one

We live literally a 5 minute drive from the hospital though so whenever we have needed to go I've just quickly popped in a taxi

About 30 minutes for myself.
Trouble breathing, Fast heart rate and feeling like i would collapse
(About 12 hours after a general anthestic)

Had Kidney injury and was admitted

• Dont drive, was no taxis and was mismddle of night

I've only needed one twice

The first time....I'm not sure....it was after I had overdosed. But generally I think between exes mum ringing them and them arriving it was only about 20 mins (though this was circa 2009)-that does sound stupidly quick granted, although I should probably add that not that long after being admitted I did almost die and have to be resuscitated.

The second time I'd called 111, had all the symptoms of a stroke so had no choice but to be blue lighted to hospital though thankfully it turned out to be Bells Palsy, again that was very very quick.

I've fortunately never been in the position of having to wait hours.

Only ever called twice, both for seizures when DD was a baby. Both time ambulance arrive in less than 10 minutes (felt like hours though).

I’m afraid so, mid morning on a Saturday and no ambulances were available to be sent.

Nearly 5 hours after my mum had a seizure linked to her heart condition, she started seizing at 7.23pm & by the time it stopped at 7.27pm I was on the phone to 999, the ambulance turned up at 12.15am. Ds has waited up to 12 hours when his dad has needed to be admitted, he has secondary progressive MS & is usually admitted for sepsis caused by a UTI.

Seven hours due to a neck injury in rugby, I had a C6 fracture, when I had a compound leg fracture I think it was almost five hours. Other times it’s been so quick it feels like they were sat waiting around the corner.

This is sad and quite terrifying. Can we do something?

most communities now have defibrillators. Can we get community stretchers that can be loaded into a car across the back seat? Can we organise training so people can learn how to move someone safely? Maybe we can work with local community transport groups to adapt their vehicles and organise volunteers for emergency transport too?

15 mins.

Once when I broke my back and once when I went into shock and my heart nearly stopped.

All other less serious medical events I’ve always done the right thing of not bothering the ambulance service.

I called an ambulance on Oct 4th 2021 and it just never turned up. I suppose you could say I’m still waiting for it now. After a few hours of me rolling around the floor and going a Marge Simpson shade of yellow, DP took me into A&E and I had emergency surgery for acute cholecystitis. The consultant in A&E said any longer and I would have gone into sepsis.