Wrexham man, 86, died after four-hour ambulance wait, family say

An 86-year-old man died after lying in the road waiting more than four hours for an ambulance, his family have said.

George Ian Stevenson was hit by a car near his home in Johnstown, Wrexham county, last Wednesday.

His family said the first 999 call was made at 19:31 GMT, and the ambulance did not arrive until 23:37 GMT.

The Welsh Ambulance Service is looking into the incident, but said that at the time of the call, all its vehicles were already committed to other patients.

Two off-duty paramedics stopped to help, but were reluctant to move him in case they caused further injury.

Mr Stevenson's granddaughter, Ellie Williams said on the night of the accident it was raining, freezing and foggy.

She said: "Left there for four hours, begging for help, waiting for help. And that makes us so sad.

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"A hard-working man who has paid his taxes all his life and paid into the system has been let down when he's needed them the most, and I just can't quite comprehend what has happened to him."

Ms Williams, 32, said her grandfather was conscious and in pain while he waited, but seemed OK.

After the ambulance arrived, she said Mr Stevenson went into cardiac arrest and died.

His granddaughter, Ellie Williams, and widow Sylvia Stevenson said he was waiting four hours for an ambulance

"The one thing that breaks my heart more than anything is knowing by the time that the ambulance did arrive, was he still aware?" she said.

Ms Williams has started an online petition calling for improvements to ambulance services.

She said: "People are suffering and people genuinely losing their lives because of the lack of ambulances.

"It's not fair. Paramedics go to train, nurses, doctors, they are there to do their job to help people, and they're being prevented from doing that."

More than 4,500 have signed the petition so far.

The family, who live a few miles from Wrexham Maelor Hospital, said the ambulance came from Dolgellau in Gwynedd, more than an hour away.

They said the driver was the only staff member on board, and the off-duty paramedics who stopped to help went with Mr Stevenson and performed CPR in the back of the vehicle.

North Wales Police is appealing for witnesses to the crash

His widow, Sylvia Stevenson, said she was "sad to lose him like that" adding that he was "so healthy".

"It makes me feel terrible," she said.

"What on earth is happening to our country, the NHS? It's north Wales [that] seems to be the worst place."

She said people were "waiting hours" for ambulances and "nobody comes to them".

She said at the moment her memory of her husband was of him lying in the road.

Welsh Ambulance Service operations director Lee Brooks said it was working to establish "the full sequence of events," and would contact Mr Stevenson's family.

Mr Brooks said: "What we can say at this early stage is that at the time of this call, all of our ambulance vehicles were already committed to other patients in the community or at hospitals, where handover delays in north-east Wales were especially difficult on the evening of 2 March."