A 86-YEAR-OLD woman had to be taken to hospital in the back of her son's transit van after breaking her hip in a fall after she was told an ambulance would be eight hours.
Irene Bowman, who has cancer, fell while out shopping with her son Nicholas at Newport's Spytty Retail Park, and immediately knew she had broken her hip.
Members of the public immediately rushed to her aid, calling 999 and retrieving blankets and offering hot drinks and support.
Nicholas said: "I remember thinking 'this isn't happening'. It was all such a nightmare. I knew she was in agony because the first thing she was crying out was 'my hip, my hip'.
"You never think it will happen to you, but I'll never forget seeing her just go down like a ton of bricks, it was awful. I was in complete panic mode."
A passer-by, who turned out to be a doctor, advised Mr Bowman that his mother could not be left out in the rain on the ground and should be taken to hospital as soon as possible.
Mr Bowman called an ambulance and was told that it would be at least eight hours before one would be available, despite his mother being in agony and having been on the floor for almost two hours already.
After revealing that he had a builder's van, Mr Bowman was instructed to retrieve it and transport his mother to the Grange University Hospital in the back as a matter of urgency.
With the help of complete strangers, who had fashioned a stretcher, Mr Bowman was able to get his mother to hospital in the back of the van, which was already a 40 minute drive.
He said: "I was so scared. I'd rung the ambulance multiple times, and when they told me how long a wait it would be, I told them she had cancer and that she could be dead by then!
"I was really reluctant to move her because she was in such pain but I knew she had to be taken off the floor and to hospital as quickly as possible."
After the accident on Friday, October 18, Mrs Bowman had to have pins put in her leg, and remained in hospital for almost a month, returning home on Friday.
Mr Bowman said: "It was a nightmare, but the hospital treated her so well, and I can't thank the members of the public who helped us enough."
South Wales East MS Natasha Asghar told the Welsh Parliament last week of the incident, stating that Mrs Bowman was "in danger of hypothermia" while waiting for an ambulance.
Following an exchange with the government's business minister Jane Hutt MS, Ms Asghar said she was pleased Mrs Bowman was "making a strong recovery" after an "incredibly distressing" incident.
A statement from the Welsh Ambulance Service said the team sent their "sincere apologies" to the Bowman family, and explained that they prioritise 999 calls according to patient needs.
Executive Director of Operations Lee Brooks said: "Unfortunately, the wait Mrs Bowman experienced reflects the sustained and well-documented pressures across the entire system, which is why we are thinking very differently about the way we deliver services in future and are already testing some new ways of working across Wales to understand how we can relieve some of the pressure.
“We would like to thank those who came to Mrs Bowman’s aid and wish her a speedy recovery."
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