Sheffield grandmother, 88, waits in pain for two hours before ambulance arrives

Freda Stancer slipped on wet ground in temperatures as cold as 3°C as she waited for help.

Her neighbours tried to keep her warm with portable heaters, a hairdryer and blankets between five 999 calls.

The 88-year-old’s son, Paul Stancer, says his mother is lucky to be alive following the ordeal at her home in Sheffield.

Mr Stancer, who lives in London, said: “l was absolutely horrified to hear how long she had to wait in the freezing cold. You wouldn’t treat an animal like that.

“If the ambulance service doesn’t see that as a priority I don’t know what is. There would have had to be a lot of people with missing limbs wandering around town for that not to qualify as a priority.

“Thankfully she’s recovering now in the Royal Hallamshire Hospital but I think she would have died of hypothermia were it not for her neighbours’ actions.”

Mr Stancer said his mother, who worked as a nurse for 40 years and has four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, had gone outside to feed the birds on December 29 when she slipped around 2.30pm.

It was nearly an hour before neighbours Sue and George Allott said they found her lying in her back garden and called for an ambulance at 3.25pm.

Mrs Allott said a first-aid responder had arrived in his own car at about 4.40pm, but was not qualified to administer pain relief or move Ms Stancer inside.

She said it was not until 5.20pm that an ambulance finally appeared and took the pensioner to hospital.

She said: “When the first-aid responder heard how long she’d been lying there even he said ‘this is a joke’ and dialled 999 himself.

“I know the NHS is short of resources but we would like to know why it took so long for anyone to arrive.”

Yorkshire Ambulance Service locality director for emergency operations in South Yorkshire, Jackie Cole apologised to Mrs Stancer’s family for the delay.

She said: “We would like to sincerely apologise for the delay in responding to Freda Stancer following her fall on Thursday, December 29.

“The patient’s family have been in touch with the trust and we are liaising with them directly to discuss their concerns.

“The call came in during a period of very high demand and we were doing our best to respond as quickly as possible to all patients who needed our assistance.

“We would like to reassure members of the public that our main priority continues to be providing a safe, responsive and high quality service to the people of Yorkshire.”

Mrs Stancer’s story comes after news broke on Monday that a 79-year-old man had died in November while waiting for an ambulance which took more than two and a half hours to get to him.