"Woman with dementia, 91, left waiting for 17 HOURS for ambulance after a fall"

[dutchman]

She is a resident of Trinity Lodge in Coventry



A 91-year-old woman with dementia had to wait on the floor for 17 hours for an ambulance to arrive after she suffered a fall at the care home where she lives.

Jean Burgess suffered the fall on Wednesday morning at Trinity Lodge, Quorn Way, Coventry, and it wasn't until almost 4am on Thursday when an ambulance arrived.

There were fears that she had broken her hip, so staff were unable to help her up due to fears they could hurt her more.

Her son-in-law, Peter Garbett said: "She fell at 10.30am on Wednesday and had to wait until 03.40am on Thursday for an ambulance to arrive.

"She was lying on the floor for the entire time as staff couldn't move her as there was a fear she had broken her hip."

"She became desperate to go to the toilet but we couldn't move her for fear of hurting her any more.

"I saw the dignity go out of her eyes when she ended up weeing herself - it was just awful to watch.

"Because she has dementia, she was really confused as to why she was on the floor and kept asking what was happening."

Despite the situation, Mr Garbett was full of praise for the staff at both the care home and the ambulance service, but says something in the system needs to change in order to stop incidents like this happening again.

He said: "The staff at Trinity Lodge and the ambulance service do a fantastic job in difficult conditions, but if we as a society can't protect and help our most vulnerable then what chance do we really have?"