How long is too long to wait for an ambulance??

[doubletroublemum]

My son woke up today with a really chesty cough. By the afternoon he had a high fever. And by bedtime his breathing has become really laboured and fast. I called 111, and based on his breathing rate and that I said he sounded as though he was 'panting' they decided to send an ambulance out.
Nearly 2 hours later and I'm still waiting. In this instance would you cancel and go to A&E or keep waiting?? My poor little man is struggling so hard for each breath and I'm just sat here doing nothing...

Phone 999 now.

You need to talk to the people on 999 yourself and find out what is going on. If you get in the car to drive him to A&E you could be wasting the time of the crew about to arrive, and also delaying treatment as the ambulance will have oxygen and medication in the vehicle that they can administer immediately as soon as they get to you.

I agree the chances are that it hasn't been logged correctly - a child struggling to breathe ought to be very high priority.

Do you or anyone else in the house have a blue (ventolin) asthma inhaler? Getting some of that into his lungs could help and is unlikely to do any harm - but I'm not a medical expert. I just know that when my DS age 3 was blue-lighted to hospital in very similar circumstances, afterwards he was given a ventolin prescription identical to that which DH uses and I was told to use it liberally whenever needed as it wasn't really possible to overdose on it so better to be on the safe side.

Here in the US the police and fire service will take someone to hospital if there is no ambulance available. Call 999 and speak to them. Tell them police/fire service helping is ok too if they have capacity.

I hope your ds is ok op

In this country, the police and fire DO NOT transport people to hospital if ambulances are busy.

Meanwhile in parts of Cheshire the fire service have been taking patients to hospital if necessary. They took my Dad a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for the responses. First responder arrived just as I was about to call. Ambulance shortly after. In hospital now with little one on oxygen.

hope he perks up soon.

Phew. I remember how awful it was when this was us. But kids are so resilient - he will bounce back quickly and will hardly remember being poorly in not too long.

Glad they arrived and best wishes to you and your wee boy.

Hope he gets well soon , the ambulance service is ridiculously overstretched particularly at night . When dh rang 999 for the one for me he got put on hold !