Woman ‘bled to death’ after being ‘forced to wait 15 hours’ in ambulance outside A&E

The family of a woman who “bled to death” after she waited in an ambulance for “15 hours” outside A&E are demanding answers.

An ambulance was called for Marie Shenton, 70, after she started vomiting blood and she was rushed to Torbay Hospital in South Devon.

But she was forced to wait for hours in the ambulance outside the hospital, even though she was a category one emergency patient and paramedics reported her condition getting worse, according to her family.

Marie’s sister, Bridget Haynes, told Sky News the way her sibling was treated wasn’t “humane” and “you wouldn’t let a dog suffer like that”.

Ms Haynes continued: “My sister’s dead because she was in an ambulance for 15 hours and that’s not right. That’s just not right.

“To die the way she did, it wasn’t humane. You wouldn’t let the dog suffer like that.”

While waiting in the ambulance on 27 November, Marie started to vomit blood again so a nurse from the hospital came to take a blood test, her sister said.

Paramedics then helped Marie go to the toilet but she was “just passing pure blood”, her sister said.

Ms Haynes claims the paramedics informed hospital staff of this development, but no one came.

At first Marie was in a good mood, according to his sister. She was chatting and laughing and “talking about Christmas”.

But she deteriorated quickly and when she was finally admitted into hospital, she was just saying “thank you, sorry, thank you” and “mumbling” a lot.

Then three days later, on 30 November, Marie’s family say they were contacted to say her condition had deteriorated further.

When they arrived at hospital, they say they were informed she had fallen out of bed. Marie died later that day.

Ms Haynes worked for the NHS for 37 years until 2017 but said she is terrified about what is happening to the service.

She said she “can’t believe” what is happening to the health service, adding that “it’s scary, very scary”.

Arriving at the hospital 10 minutes after her sister died, Ms Haynes said she is “just so angry about it”, adding that her sister “bled to death”.

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust’s medical director Ian Currie said: “We would like to send our heartfelt condolences to Mrs Shenton’s family. We cannot comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality but remain in contact with her next of kin.

“We don’t want anyone waiting in an ambulance longer than necessary and all patients arriving at our emergency department are triaged and assessed, with the most clinically urgent being prioritised. We work closely with South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust to make sure everyone waiting in an ambulance is robustly assessed, monitored and their care is escalated and prioritised appropriately.”

The Independent has contacted the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.

It comes as further strikes have been planned by unions representing nurses and ambulance workers.

The unions representing both professions are planning to strike on the same day on 6 February, and further strikes are planned in February and March.

Joining nurses from the picket line on Thursday morning, Pat Cullen, Royal College of Nursing chief executive told PA news agency: “The strike will end when this government does the decent thing for the nursing staff that they have pushed out on to picket lines and give them a decent wage and allow them back in to look after their patients, because that’s what they want to do.

“Every nurse I have spoken to is deeply disappointed. They say this is just another move to turn their backs on the fantastic nursing staff that have kept us all going through a very, very incredible period, which was the pandemic and long before it.”