By EMS1 Staff
NOTTINGHAM, England — A woman suffering a miscarriage took a train to the hospital after being told she would have to wait five hours for an ambulance.
BBC.com reported that Alice Johnson called 911 when she began having a miscarriage, and a nurse called her back to tell her that she needed to find her own way to the hospital. Her mother-in-law helped her on the train as she could not move.
Johnson said when she arrived at the hospital, there were multiple EMS crews and ambulances waiting outside who had not been on calls.
“The emergency services do a fantastic job, but if the calls aren’t passed to them, they can’t do anything,” Johnson said. “It was a horrifying experience that nobody should have to go through.”
East Midlands Ambulance Service Paramedic and Ambulance Operations Manager Wendy Hazard said the crews were transporting 71 patients across town at the time, with 24 more waiting, which is why they “could not get to Alice as quickly as we wanted to.”
She added that the nurse ”discussed options” with Johnson, and they decided that the best option would be to “make her own way” to the hospital.