Young player‘s horror wait after injury
A 15-year-old West Lothian football player had to wait two agonising hours for an ambulance to arrive after dislocating his kneecap while playing for his local club.
The schoolboy was playing for Blackburn United’s Under 16 team last weekend against Dalkeith Thistle Community FC at Cowden Park in Midlothian when he collapsed in pain as teammates and coaches rushed to help.
Nearing the end of the game, the player hyper-extended his leg while clearing the ball from his half.
He was left lying prone on his back on a wet pitch, writhing in agony with a dislocated knee.
After calling 999, coaches were told there would be no ambulance coming and it would take up to four hours until someone would come to their assistance.
An ambulance finally arrived two hours after the initial call. Meanwhile a heroic off-duty ambulance worker took it upon themselves to come to the youngster’s aid.
Manager of the young team, Brian Smilie, was pitch-side and told our sister title, Edinburgh Live he feels “let down” by the ambulance service.
The 49-year-old is also development officer for Blackburn United and has been successfully coaching for 25 years in West Lothian.
He said: “It’s awful to see such a young, promising football player in so much pain on a cold, wet pitch and I feel incredibly let down by the ambulance service as a whole. It was really clear to see how bad his knee was and I had to call four times just to explain how extreme the situation was.
“We tried really hard to keep the player comfortable with a hat and a few coats but even with that, he just kept shaking uncontrollably and that was probably due to the shock of the situation which we had to work hard at.
“I am just so thankful for when the ambulance turned up as when I saw the blue lights I had a massive sigh of relief.
“The paramedic was amazing when he turned up as he got him into a leg brace which let us move him.”
A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we received a call at 16:38 on Sunday, March 17, to attend this incident. Due to high demand at this time, we unfortunately could not attend immediately. We arrived on scene at 18:03 and transported the patient to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.”