A granddad who broke his hip and had to be driven to hospital strapped to a plank of wood due to an ambulance shortage has died. Melvyn Ryan had been found lying on the floor at his Cwmbran home in the early hours of Friday, December 9, by his granddaughter Nicole Lea, from Pontypool.
After being alerted by a signal from the emergency lifeline button round the pensioner's neck she arrived at the then 89-year-old's property to discover he'd also suffered a broken shoulder and was bleeding from a cut to his head. However when she called 999 for an ambulance she was told none were available and that no-one would be coming to help.
Instead the call handler reportedly told Nicole to ring an out-of-hours GP and book a taxi to transport the pensioner to hospital before hanging up in order to "answer other calls". As a result, utilising the help of her partner and her mum, the 27-year-old firefighter then tied her grandfather to a plank of wood and drove him to hospital herself in the back of the van she'd bought to ferry around her pet dogs.
