Truro mayor feared for his life during 90-minute ambulance wait after 'turning blue'

The mayor of Truro said he was left fearing for his life as he waited for medics after his blood pressure spiked and he began to turn blue.

Mayor Steven Webb, who is paralysed from the waist down, waited an hour and a half for an ambulance.

Mr Webb said the reason for the delay was that the closest ambulance to do a blue light call was 50 miles away, in Saltash.

Mr Webb suffered a spinal injury 30 years ago and had an autonomic dysreflexia attack on Monday 21 March.Autonomic dysreflexia is a semi-common issues for people who have had severe spinal injuries and raises your blood pressure, lowers heartbeats and can cause a stroke, seizure or cardiac arrest.

It caused him to have high blood pressure, a pounding headache and was heavily sweating and beginning to turn blue during the incident.

As soon as Mr Webb noticed something was wrong, he called for an ambulance.

But 20 minutes passed and despite the condition being potentially fatal, the ambulance was nowhere to be seen.

“I called them again and after I asked for an ambulance it was five minutes before the call was answered,” Mr Webb said. “If I wasn’t breathing, or was having a stroke, I’d say that was nearly game over.

"To me that is really dangerous. We had all the tablets we could, but we waited 90 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.

“When they arrived, the crew was amazing, everyone I dealt with at the NHS was amazing and they looked after me. But I learned from them that the reason for the delay was that the closest available ambulance to do a blue light call was in Saltash. That's 50 miles away."

The ambulance then had to battle through traffic between east and mid-Cornwall before reaching Mr Webb’s home. From there, he was treated and is now on the mend.

“It’s just absolutely crazy,” he added. “It seems to be quite normal, but nothing about that is normal.

"I can remember when you used to phone an ambulance and they’d keep you on the phone, they’d tell you where they were and a few minutes later the ambulance was there. I’ve known people to have to wait a few hours."

He said he felt "kind of useless", adding: "Last time I had to call an ambulance for autonomic dysreflexia, about 15 or 20 years ago, I was in a hospital bed with an IV drip within 25 minutes.”

A spokesperson for the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust said:: “We are sorry that, due to the health and social care system being under severe pressure, some patients are having to wait longer for an ambulance.

"One of the reasons for this is due to the length of time it’s taking us to hand over patients into busy hospitals.

“We are working closely with NHS partners to address these delays, so our crews can get back out on the road for other patients. However, even with the additional resources we are making available, the number of ambulances currently waiting for prolonged periods of time at emergency departments inevitably impacts on our ability to respond to patients.”