Dad was like an old cow waiting to die

TOM WILSON’S son Michael says his elderly father was left like “an old cow waiting to die” on a hospital trolley.

The frail retired construction manager’s ordeal began when he fell and banged his arm and head in the bathroom.

He has breathing difficulties from COPD as well as having several stents fitted after two heart attacks.

Yesterday, his son said he wanted to make the public aware of the crisis “before someone dies”.

Tom’s wife Anne, 73, called Michael for help after his fall.

Then he called the ambulance service seven times over three hours before paramedics arrived to take him to Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary.

At the hospital, there was even more distress.

Michael said: “He was put into a corridor on a trolley and waited for more than 13 hours before he got taken to a bed.

“I counted 25 people on trollies in corridors.

“My father is a proud man and seeing him lying there like an old cow waiting to die was awful.

“Dad was confused. He didn’t know where he was. It was a disgrace.”

After Tom’s discharge from hospital, Anne had to call an ambulance again as he was struggling to breathe.

The ambulance arrived fairly promptly but the paramedics were in the house for two and a half hours awaiting instructions from a doctor.

Michael said: “It is no wonder people are having to wait so long for ambulances if paramedics are tied up like this.

“I am fed up because the Government keep trying to tell us there is nothing wrong.

“It is time they started telling the truth. The whole system needs looking at.”