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.
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However, despite managing to get him to the Grange University Hospital in nearby Llanfrechfa for treatment within a couple of hours, the elderly army veteran would sadly never return home. "As much as I wish I could announce his recovery, granddad started to decline after his 90th birthday on January 25," said Nicole, who'd been Mr Ryan's principal carer since he lost his wife Maureen to Covid in 2020.
"We hoped we could move him to a hospice but he was ready to go and we didn't have enough time. I just sat with him in hospital during his last moments and I'm just grateful I was able to be there for those."
Nicole added: "He was such a selfless man who impacted positively on everyone he met and made me who I am. He was my confidante and best friend. I will forever miss him."
Speaking in December Nicole's partner Eliot Hill was quick to stress that, despite the frustration of being told no emergency help would be forthcoming, they had nothing but praise for "put-upon and overworked" NHS frontline staff. "Once we got to the hospital everyone was great," he said. "They rushed to the van and got Melvyn straight inside on a trolley. He was also X-rayed within an hour or so."
In response to WalesOnline's initial story Lee Brooks, executive director of operations at the Welsh Ambulance Service, blamed "the well-documented pressures facing the broader NHS" and how they were affecting the ambulance service. He apologised to Mr Ryan and his family, adding that "current levels of demand, handover delays at hospitals, and staff sickness levels have limited our capacity to respond in a safe and timely manner".
Such was the situation that "patients whose condition is less serious may sadly have to wait longer for our help or be advised to make their own way to hospital". Mr Brooks added that he wanted to put the family in touch with the appropriate team "so that we can investigate and better understand their experience."
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