Dad of five died of heart attack after family could not get ambulance for over an hour
A FATHER of five died of a heart attack after his family could not get an ambulance for over an hour.
Martin Clark, 68, had been fit before he suddenly collapsed in pain in November.
His wife, Ann, phoned 999 from their home in East Sussex but, when she called back and no ambulance had been found after 45 minutes, the family took matters into their own hands.
Ms Clark told the BBC: “My son said ‘I’m going to drive my dad to hospital’ and they said ‘we don’t advise you to do that’.
“But we kept thinking the ambulance would arrive and it would be okay, and it just didn’t.
“We just drove to hospital, I unclipped my seatbelt and held my husband and told him I loved him and that was it, he was gone.
“The NHS is broken. Everybody is scared about what will happen if they get ill.”
When Ms Clark returned home, South East Coast Ambulance Service had left a voicemail saying they still did not have a crew ready an hour after her first call.
Suspected heart attacks should be responded to within 18 minutes.
A spokesperson for the ambulance service said: “We are very sorry we were unable to provide a timely response to Mr Clark.
“Our thoughts are with his family and we will look into this.
“We are working hard to respond to everyone who needs us as quickly as possible while our services remain under significant pressure.”