Pembrokeshire Wales: 'Unforgivable' as man dies of cardiac arrest during nine-hour wait for ambulance

David Bye, from Pembroke Dock in Wales, sadly died in the early hours of Monday, July 1. His wife, Pauline Bye, has labelled the lengthy wait for an ambulance as "unforgivable".

The Welsh Ambulance Service said that on the morning Mr Bye passed away, ambulances spent over 250 hours outside hospitals across the Hywel Dda University Health Board region, which includes Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion, waiting to transfer patients. Mrs Bye told WalesOnline: "Nine hours after falling off the bed and us calling for an ambulance someone finally came, but it was too late and David died.

“David had a long history of heart disease and lymphoedema following a triple bypass and aortic valve replacement four years ago and had regular periods as an inpatient at Withybush Hospital. I became very worried about David's condition so I rang 999 at 6pm for an ambulance but they told me none were available.

“I rang again at midnight and again was told there were no ambulances and to try and make David as comfortable as possible and an ambulance would eventually be with us. At this point David was still talking to me but he had become very confused and I was concerned at that point that this could be a key sign of a cardiac arrest."

She added: "I had made him as comfortable as possible with bedding and cushions. He complained of back pain but no other injuries and his breathing was okay, although he was still very clearly confused and his responses to me were very delayed.

“He slowly deteriorated, became more sleepy and he stopped talking to me, by which time I rang ambulance control again. By that time it was 3.15am and the answer was the same regarding no ambulances being available. But while I was talking to the ambulance control David had a cardiac arrest. Then it all kicked off.

“Immediately the controller alerted the rapid response who got to us within minutes. They then took over cardiac massage from me and they were followed by more rapid responders and two fire engines and an ambulance."

Liam Williams, executive director of quality and nursing at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said poor ambulance response time is a symptom of a much larger issue including handover delays at accident and emergency departments across the country. He said: “On June 30 and July 1 our ambulances spent over 250 hours outside hospitals across the Hywel Dda University Health Board region waiting to transfer the care of patients to hospital colleagues, which significantly reduces the number of ambulances able to respond to patients in the community.

"On behalf of everyone at the Welsh Ambulance Service I would like to extend my condolences to the family of Mr Bye on their sad loss. This is not the standard of service we want to provide and we recognise that this is not what the public rightly expects of us. As a result we continue to work with health board colleagues to find local solutions to the challenges faced and we are also looking at evolving our current service model further. I would once again like to extend condolences on behalf of the trust to Mr Bye's family at this very difficult time."