A man claims he was left crying in pain for 14 hours while waiting for an ambulance to arrive – after falling into a two-foot gap between his bed and a radiator.
Daryl Major, 32, says his dad found him in the precarious position before calling 999 for urgent help on Wednesday afternoon (November 3).
His dad managed to help reposition him, but Daryl was still stuck on the floor of his flat, in Cavendish Square, Swindon, in immense pain.
The agonising incident came after several weeks of less significant pain after hurting himself on a bus – but doctors told him he’d just trapped a nerve.
He said: “I tried to get to the edge of my bed, to try and swing my legs onto the floor and my body up.
“But as I put my right leg onto the floor, I could feel it giving way and as it did my right hand had hold of my radiator.
“Eventually I ended up on the floor between my bed and radiator, in a bit of a controlled fall. So my dad eventually found me in the about two-foot gap.
“It felt like someone was ripping my hip out at the same time stabbing at the back of my hip.
“I was crying in pain and just wanted it to go away.
“I’m on co-codamol and pregabalin, but it only took the edge off of the pain.”
South Western Ambulance Service took over 14 hours to respond to the emergency call, arriving the following day (November 4) at around 8am.
He was rushed to Great Western Hospital where he was given Entonox pain relief as paramedics transferred him into a wheelchair outside the emergency department.
“When I arrived at the hospital, I was seen within about half an hour”, Daryl said.
“I saw an A&E consultant and was assessed fully on my ligaments, muscles and tendons.
“I was given the diagnosis of pretty bad damage to my ligaments and tendons.”
Daryl thinks the lengthy floor wait caused his buttocks to numb, and 24 hours later, the feeling still hasn’t returned. He fears it may have caused permanent damage.
“Being on the floor really exacerbated the hip, due to the pressure. It definitely caused a lot more pain”, he said.
“The area around my buttocks is still numb and has very little feeling.”
A spokesperson for South Western Ambulance Service Foundation Trust said: “SWASFT received a call at 2.33pm on Wednesday in the Parks area of Swindon.
“We allocated one ambulance and took a man to the emergency department of Great Western Hospital.
“We continue to experience the highest-ever level of sustained demand on our service.
“It is an absolute priority for us and our NHS partners to reduce these delays, so we can be there for our patients, while prioritising those who are most seriously injured and ill.
“Our response times are directly affected by the time it takes us to handover patients into busy hospital emergency departments, which is longer than we have ever seen before.
“We are losing many more hours compared with recent years which causes our ambulances to queue outside hospitals and unable to respond to other patients and has an inevitable impact on the service we can provide.
“Patients who need urgent medical help or advice are encouraged to visit 111.nhs.uk or to call 111, which is free and available 24/7. This will ensure they get the right care, and the ambulance service can focus on those most in need.
“For on-going or non-urgent medical concerns or if they need medicines, people should contact their local GP surgery or a local pharmacy.”
