King's Norton man's last words to fiancée who died in hospital after 11-hour wait for ambulance

ITV News Central Reporter Lewis Warner speaks to a dad whose fiancé died after waiting 11 hours for an ambulance

A man who sat with his fiancée as she died in a hospital bed has told ITV News Central of the appalling 11-hour wait she endured before her death.

James' wife and mother-of-four Hannah Houghton had cystic fibrosis and died just two days before Christmas.

After calling 999 when she began struggling to breathe, the couple waited through the night for 11 hours for the emergency services they were assured to their home in King's Norton, Birmingham.

Ms Houghton had to wait for an ambulance and then outside the hospital before being treated, she endured another wait, to get a bed in intensive care.

Mr Jackman told ITV News Central that if he could have physically picked up Hannah and taken her to hospital, he would have.

Speaking about the 11-hour wait for the ambulance to come, he said: "It was a dreadful feeling. You've phoned for help. But it's not coming."

James Jackman speaks about the horrifying moment the couple knew his fiancé Hannah was not going to survive

West Midlands Ambulance Service has apologised to Mr Jackman.

In a statement, WMAS said: "We would like to apologise to the family of Miss Houghton for the delayed response and offer our condolences.

"Sadly, we are seeing some patients wait a very long time for ambulances to arrive as a result of long hospital handover delays.

"The pressures we are seeing in health and social care means that when our crews arrive at A&E, they are unable to hand over patients to hospital staff and therefore cannot respond to the next patient in the community.

"If there are long hospital handover delays, with our crews left caring for patients that need admitting to hospital, they are simply unable to respond to the next call, which can impact on the care of the patient in the community.

"We are working incredibly hard with our partners to find new ways to reduce these delays so that our crews can respond more quickly and save more lives."

Family friends have now set up a GoFundMe page to help the family with financial costs relating to the funeral.