A 91-year-old grandfather tragically passed away just days after being forced to wait for more than ten hours for an ambulance to arrive.

Don Mansell, 91, was a retired carpenter from Shrewsbury, England, who broke his hip when he suffered a fall in the kitchen at his home.

At the time of the incident, the senior man’s daughter, Sue Beesty, was visiting her father at his home. She also called the ambulance immediately after her father lost balance and collapsed on the concrete floor.

After the fall, Mansell was forced to lie on the floor for ten agonizing hours before the paramedics finally arrived and rushed him to the hospital.

As Sue revealed, she and her husband were told by the dispatcher not to move the elderly man as it could cause further complications due to his condition. Instead, they had to wait with him for 10 hours not knowing when the ambulance would show up.

“My husband and myself had just arrived to see him on Sunday afternoon. He was standing facing the counter top. He turned 90 degrees and lost his balance, landing on the concrete floor,” Beesty recalled.

“I rang an ambulance just after 2.30 pm but it was the early hours of the morning the next day before it arrived.

“All this time he suffered excruciating pain. He was in so much agony. He kept saying about the ambulance, it must be my turn.

“It was horrible because we couldn’t do anything. We had been informed not to move him or to allow him to drink because he might have needed an operation.”

After Mansell was finally taken to the hospital, doctors informed the family that the elderly man’s heart was too weak to proceed with an operation that could potentially save his life.

Five days later, after his condition continued to deteriorate at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, the elderly man passed away.

“I’m saddened. It was distressing not only for him but me as well because I felt helpless. What is happening in Shropshire? All our services are being eroded,” the heartbroken daughter added.

“He lived in Shrewsbury about three miles from the hospital. Something needs to be done so other people don’t get put in that situation.

“We are told the changeover at the hospitals are delaying things. There’s a lack of funding to provide sufficient beds for the emergency services. I don’t understand how the ambulances have come to such a full stop.”

Following the incident, West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesperson apologized to the family and claimed that high levels of demand were to blame for the delay.

“Paramedics in our control room spoke to the caller with the patient several times to check his condition. Unfortunately, high levels of demand from people with life-threatening conditions sometimes mean we are not able to respond to incidents as quickly as our patients would want,” they said.

“We are working closely with all local NHS partners to reduce delays and we continue to bolster frontline and control room staffing as part of a range of measures to help manage the current high levels of demand.”

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