Scots dad left in back of ambulance outside hospital for eight hours after heart attack
"I was panicking the whole time because I knew it was a heart attack and I knew I could have another one at any time."
A Scots dad was left in the back of an ambulance for over eight hours after he suffered a heart attack.
Gary Dow, from Dyce, Aberdeen, called 999 after feeling chest pain and pins and needles in his arm at around 3am on April 30.
The 54-year-old told our sister title Aberdeen Live that he was informed no ambulances were available, and was told to ask someone else to drive him to the hospital.
"I had been out most of the day taking photos. When I got home that night, my usual routine is I take my medicine and go to bed. When I was in bed, I started getting pains right across my chest.
"I was having pins and needles down my arm and ended up phoning for an ambulance. When I phoned, they said there wasn't one available any time soon and could I possibly get one of my friends to take me to A&E. I told them 'it's 3am I'm not going to go round knocking on people's doors'."
The single father-of-six, who also had a stroke last November, was eventually attended to by paramedics, but when the ambulance arrived at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, no beds were available in A&E.
Gary explained his ordeal: "I ended up telling the phone operator I didn't think I could make it to a taxi to get someone to take me up to the hospital. In the end, she said there would be an ambulance as soon as possible. Five minutes later, one turned up.
"They took me to A&E and did the usual routine and tried to book me in but there were no beds. In the end, I stayed in the ambulance for over eight hours, waiting.
"I was panicking the whole time because I knew it was a heart attack and I knew I could have another one at any time. I was so scared but the ambulance crew were really good.
"They were annoyed about it as well. It's what they were saying - in a whole shift, they're picking up two people in a shift nowadays because of the queues getting into the hospital.
"There were six ambulances when we got there, one went and that left five. That's five ambulances with people in the back of them."
He was finally admitted at 11.30am, and was quickly moved from the emergency department to a cardiac ward, before being taken for an operation on Friday, May 2.
He continued: "It was 11.30am that morning that I got into the hospital. Things then moved very quickly and I was rushed from A&E to another ward, which they called a stacking ward for when they're trying to get people a bed. I was left there for five minutes and then was taken to another part of the hospital.
"From there, I was transferred to cardiac ward. I had blood tests taken and it was confirmed I had a heart attack."
His condition worsened after his surgery, and he was kept in hospital for an extra day before being discharged on Saturday.
He was quick to praise the staff who looked after him, adding: "They saved my life and that's a fact. I don't know what would have happened.
"I feel like it's strange because the ambulance crews were fantastic; they're banging their heads against the wall as well. There was the driver of the ambulance, the paramedic and a trainee doctor in back of ambulance.
"That's three people taken off shift from doing work, but they said this is happening all the time."
Gary is now focusing on recovering and getting his health back, but is worried about any further complications. He said: "I don't feel safe because I've got a long way to go before I'm 100%. You're scared in case this happens again.
"I'm a single dad, I can't afford to be ill. I'm not allowed to drive after my stroke in November last year."
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A spokesperson for NHS Grampian said: "While we cannot comment on the care of individual patients, we would always encourage anyone who is experiencing symptoms of acute illness to get in touch so that they can be assessed.
"We welcome all feedback and would encourage anyone with a concern about the care they received to raise this with us directly so it can be appropriately reviewed.
"We will continue to work closely with the Scottish Ambulance Service to reduce ambulance turnaround times to help increase ambulance availability.
"Our clinical staff are now providing support to assess patients while in ambulances, and our Call Before Convey and Flow Navigation Centre are examples of work being undertaken to help address the challenges with having the lowest number of beds per head of population in Scotland.
"The safety of patients, our staff, and those working for SAS has the highest priority. It is important to note that the longest ambulance turnaround times are not indicative of the time taken for emergency cases to be seen and everyone is seen based on the urgency of their clinical need.
"The median turnaround time for ambulances in Grampian is just over one hour which we will continue to work hard to reduce. When asked by SAS we can rapidly release an ambulance from a queue to respond to the most urgent community calls.
"We are always happy to hear about your experiences of the NHS, good or bad, and you can find all the details of how to get in touch by visiting www.nhsgrampian.org/feedback."
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson said: "We are limited in what we can say due to patient confidentiality, but we can confirm we received a call at 02.35am on 30 April.
"Due to the lengthy hospital turnaround times that we were experiencing at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI) and the impact these were having on available crews in the community, we had evoked escalation procedures and the patient was asked if he could make his own way to hospital.
"Following his response, an ambulance was dispatched and arrived at 02.52am. The ambulance arrived at ARI at 03.32am and our crew cleared from the hospital at 11.33am. We hope the patient is recovering well.'
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