A woman was forced to drive her 89-year-old grandad to hospital while he lay strapped to a plank of wood with a broken hip after they were told no ambulances were available. Nicole Lea discovered her war hero grandfather Melvyn Ryan on the floor of his home in Cwmbran, Wales, having suffered a head and shoulder injury as well as breaking his hip.
However when Nicole rang 999 she was informed by Welsh Ambulance Service there was currently no help available for the OAP, the Daily Star reports. The 27-year-old firefighter - who has been looking after Melvyn since his wife sadly passed away in 2020 from coronavirus - said she 'couldn't really believe what I was being told'.
She was left with no option but to get the pensioner who was in 'agony' onto a plank of wood into the back of her van in order to 'save his life'. She said: "I ended up, with my partner and mum's help, getting him onto a plank of wood and into the back of the van we bought to transport our dogs.
"I knew the NHS was in trouble and wait times were long. I also knew that it's understaffed and its workers are underpaid but what I didn't know when I called 999 was that they'd just turn around and say they weren't sending help.
"It's only because of teamwork, brainstorming and quick thinking that the three of us managed to get grandad - a WWII Army veteran who once fought for his country - to the Grange University Hospital within a couple of hours."
Nicole's partner Elliot Hill revealed: "Once we got to the hospital though everyone was great - couldn't have done more for Melvyn.
"They rushed to my van and got him straight inside on a trolley. He was also X-rayed within an hour or so. Our complaint is not with frontline staff at all, it's with the management."
Lee Brooks, Executive Director of Operations at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: "The pressures facing the broader NHS have been well documented in the media, including how those pressures are impacting our ambulance services.
"These have continued to grow in recent weeks and last night we declared a business continuity incident and continue today to try and mitigate these pressures as best we can. Current levels of demand, handover delays at hospitals and staff sickness levels have limited our capacity to respond in a safe and timely manner."
He continued: "We invite Mr Ryan and his family to get in touch with our Putting Things Right team so that we can investigate the situation and better understand their experience."
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