A UK grandmother died alone and in agony as she waited five hours for an ambulance to rush her to a hospital that was only a five-minute drive from her home, a report said.
Rachel Rose Gibson, 58, died before an ambulance reached her at her Wrexham, North Wales home as she was “on the floor curled up in a blanket,” her daughter told news outlets.
The woman called for help around 4 p.m. on April 5 when she began coughing up blood and suffering through chronic pain, daughter Nikita said, according to the Guardian.
The ambulance arrived at 9:30 p.m. and Gibson was dead from an apparent heart attack.
“It haunts me to know she died alone in so much pain,” Nikita, 29, said.
“I feel like I can’t fully grieve because I’m so angry. She only lives five minutes away from the hospital, but must have been in too much pain to get into a taxi.”
The executive director of quality and nursing at the Welsh ambulance service, Liam Williams, apologized following Gibson’s death and vowed an investigation would be launched into the matter.
The same day Gibson died, ambulances were essentially being used as waiting rooms for hundreds of hours, the Guardian reported.
“On April 5, our ambulance crews spent over 700 hours outside hospitals across Wales waiting to hand patients over to our hospital colleagues, which in turn meant that our ambulances couldn’t respond to those waiting in the community,” Williams said. “I would like to reinforce our sincere apologies and regret to anyone who has had a poor experience from us.”
Gibson’s death highlights the crisis that has roiled the UK’s National Health Service.
In November 2022, 37,800 patients waited more than 12 hours to be seen in emergency rooms, Politico reported at the start of this year. In November 2021, it was 10,600 patients.
Michelle Greene, of the Betsi Cadwaladr university health board, said the hospital continues to face challenges discharging patients that delay its ability to take in new patients quickly, according to the Leader.
“Our Emergency Department remains extremely busy, and we apologize that this is resulting in longer waiting times than we would like, despite the best efforts of our nursing and medical staff,” she said.