A dad has told how he started slurring his words and "water coming out of my mouth, out one side" turned out to be an extremely serious condition that led him to spend the next five months in hospital.
Phil Woodford, from Preston, was rushed to hospital after feeling unwell and he was diagnosed with a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) - also known as a mini-stroke.
He told paramedics how "water was coming out my mouth, out one side" and that he was slurring his words as well as having a sensation like a torch was being shone in his eye, reported the Liverpool Echo.
The symptoms soon improved while he was at the Royal Preston Hospital but then the next day, still without having been discharged, he "slammed down on the floor" in the shower with another, more serious stroke.
"After about 10 minutes I was found. I couldn't talk so the shouting was really difficult asking for help. I was able to reach the bin and bang the bin against the wall until someone could hear me," he said.
Phil suffered the stroke in 2016, aged 45, and was hospitalised for nearly five months, before undergoing six months of rehabilitation which involved him learning to walk again.
"They did a great job putting me back together, the doctors, nurses and the therapists, but I'm really bitter on the other hand, but those they work for didn't see sense to plan for night time or weekend working," said Phil.
He missed out on the chance of having a thrombectomy, which reduces the risk of disability from a stroke by removing blood clots from blocked arteries, because no one who was able to administer it was on duty at the time.
"People don't have strokes to o'clock, so that I'm a bit bitter about. I think it's really short sighted," said Phil, now 52.
"Whatever the costs would have been are probably outweighed by the costs of domiciliary care coming my home for a couple of months when I needed it, or lifelong medication and therapy. For many people, they never return to work."
The Stroke Association reportedly warned 47,000 people could be left disabled over the next seven years due to a "postcode lottery" and a lack of 24/7 services last year, despite the NHS making efforts to extend access to life-changing stroke treatments like thrombectomy.
The charity is now worried that "stroke survivors' lives and recoveries are being put at extreme risk by ambulance delays".
NWAS aims to respond to category two calls - which includes strokes - within 18 minutes but last December the average response time for category two was, for example, one hour 13 minutes in the north west of England.
Janice Taylor, an NWAS emergency medical advisor, said she feels helpless when telling people they'll wait hours for paramedics to attend a suspected stroke or heart attack. She told the Echo: "You come off and you go, 'Oh, that's great, I've just had to tell her two and a half hours', she's having a stroke, she was having a stroke two hours ago.
"Four hours critical, irreparable damage. And we can't do anything because we haven't got enough staff. We've got staff who are on long-term stress because it's hard. It's having an effect on everyone."
Juliet Bouverie, chief executive of the Stroke Association, reportedly said: "Stroke is a medical emergency and every minute is critical. Treatment for stroke is time sensitive, so getting the best treatment in the quickest time is key to survival. Every minute stroke goes untreated 1.9 million brain cells die.
"It's vital that suspected stroke patients call 999 as soon as they see the signs of stroke, are sent ambulances rapidly and are quickly admitted to the right specialist stroke units. This way so they can receive time-sensitive, life-saving treatments.
"We're extremely worried at the Stroke Association that stroke survivors' lives and recoveries are being put at extreme risk by ambulance delays. Every minute waited is a shortened chance of survival or weeks more rehabilitative therapies. These delays are causing severe disability and even death. This has life-threatening consequences for thousands of stroke patients across the country.
"The government must recognise the severity of the situation, caused by their consistent lack of funding and resources to support patient flow through hospitals. The lack of resource and funding in the ambulance service and social care has clogged up the system, meaning people can’t get into hospital, receive quick treatment and then be discharged. This Government must act now to address immediate issues – including ambulance delays and transfers, handover at A&E, in hospital care and patient discharge – and provide resources and funding to create sustainable emergency care for the future."
An NWAS spokesperson told the Echo: "The ambulance service remains under extreme pressure, and December was the second busiest month of the year in terms of calls. However, our staff work hard every day to ensure everyone who needs an ambulance gets one, and we continue to perform better than other parts of the country.
"While patients suffering from life-threatening conditions do receive the next available ambulance, some patients are waiting longer than we would like. Improvements to our call centres mean we are now offering health advice to more patients over the phone without the need to send an ambulance.
"Consequently, well under 50% of our patients actually go to the hospital. We also continue working with NHS partners to ease handover delays. We are grateful to patients for considering alternatives for non-urgent health concerns, including NHS 111 online, GP or local pharmacy, which helps us keep our ambulances available for emergencies."
