A grieving woman has opened up about the tragic death of her husband after no ambulance arrived to treat him after he suffered a heart attack.
At this time, the NHS in the United Kingdom is under considerable strain, with one doctor claiming that the health service is under more pressure than during the peak of the pandemic, per Sky News.
Heartbreaking stories are emerging of people losing their lives due to ambulance waiting times that otherwise could have been avoided if the care was in place immediately.
Ann Clark has revealed that her husband Martin began suffering from chest pains on November 18, and after calling for an ambulance three times while waiting for 45 minutes, the family decided to drive to the hospital instead, as reported by the BBC.
When they arrived at the East Sussex hospital, Martin went into cardiac arrest and despite receiving immediate medical care, he sadly passed away aged 68, leaving behind his wife and five children.
Ann revealed the devastating events of the day in an interview with the BBC. While they were waiting for an ambulance, Martin reportedly said: "I don't think I'm going to make it. Love you."
She went on to state that her husband was a healthy man that did not smoke or drink and was active. He was even cutting a hedge with a chainsaw on the morning of his death.
Ann questioned if the outcome would have been different if an ambulance arrived promptly, adding: "The NHS is broken. Everybody is scared if they get ill where can they turn? Something needs to change - there are going to be so many deaths because of this. It's terrible."
As cited in the BBC report, NHS England published figures for ambulance waiting times in December and it sheds more light on the issues the healthcare system faces.
It shows an average of 90 minutes for ambulances to reach emergency calls, which is five times longer than the target time of 18 minutes.
Medical care reaching priority cases such as heart attacks is taking four minutes longer than the target time and more than a third of patients are waiting longer than four hours to be seen in A&E.
The South East Ambulance Service offered this apology to Ann: "We are very sorry we were unable to provide a timely response to Mr. Clark. Our thoughts are with his family and we will look into this.
"We are working hard to respond to everyone who needs us as quickly as possible while our services remain under significant pressure."
Martin's tragic death took place before the scheduled strike action by ambulance crews in England and was therefore not impacted by it.
NHS ambulance crews went on strike again yesterday (January 11) following their historic walkout on December 21 due to their pay not matching the current cost of living crisis, per LBC.
Unite the Union stated on Twitter: "Unite’s ambulance workers have been left with no option but to take industrial action. They are fighting to protect patients, to save the ambulance service and the #NHS itself, as well as providing for their families."
Workers were offered a raise of 4.75% rising to 7% for the lowest-paid workers, but unions declined this offer as they wish to negotiate closer to 17% in order to cope with the cost of living crisis.
Our thoughts are with Ann and all of Martin's family and friends.