SUNDERLAND, U.K. — A six-year-old U.K. girl lay stranded with a suspected broken back for nearly three hours, despite five calls for an ambulance.
Kiera O’Brien fell off a bouncy castle at a family birthday party and began screaming in pain, according to the Mirror UK.
Her mother Karen Robinson called for an ambulance at 2:15 p.m., but paramedics did not arrive until 5 p.m.
“It is ridiculous that it took so long,” Robinson said. “Five different people called asking for updates on when the ambulance would arrive.
“I think it is absolutely disgusting for a six-year-old girl to be left lying on a cold, hard floor for three hours. They said they had other priority call outs, such as heart attacks, but we felt like we were being fobbed off.”
Paramedics arrived to find O’Brien had not broken her back.
“I don’t blame the paramedics,” Robinson added. “They were brilliant when they arrived. It has to be to do with cuts in the service.”
The responding ambulance service, North East Ambulance, apologized for the delay citing a “high volume of emergency 999 calls.”