Bourne man who waited 18 hours for heart attack treatment backs British Heart Foundation’s campaign to fix cardiac crisis
A retired teacher waited 18 hours to be treated in hospital for a heart attack.
Glynn Evans, from Bourne, started to get an indigestion-like pain in his chest while on holiday in Bodmin, Cornwall, with family.
He wasn’t worried at first, but by 8pm he and his wife Lyn knew something was seriously wrong and they called 999.
Glynn, 76, said: “My son-in-law was going to take me to hospital but said the last thing he wanted was for me to keel over in the back of his car so we waited for the ambulance. It eventually turned up the next morning.”
When he finally got to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, there were 24 ambulances in the queue ahead of him.
Glynn, a granddad of six, said: “I stayed in the ambulance and a doctor had to come out to me to do a blood test.
“He came back later and told me that it wasn’t good news – I’d had a heart attack.”
Glynn wasn’t seen in hospital until about 2pm, about 18 hours after his wife first called 999.
Delays to heart attack treatment can lead to permanent disability or even death.
Before the pandemic, the average ambulance response target for suspected heart attacks and strokes was 18 minutes on average, but this was increased to 30 minutes due to pressure and long delays in ambulance services. The 30-minute target has been met just once since May 2021.
After his heart attack, which happened in April 2022, Glynn is backing the British Heart Foundation’s Hearts Need More campaign which is drawing attention to the ongoing waits for emergency, urgent and routine care.
The leading heart charity has launched an online pledge, which more than 40,000 people have signed so far.
The charity hopes a swell of support will help to convince the new Government to commit to a heart disease action plan.
Glynn, who now lives with heart failure, said: “The doctor who treated me was furious that I had to wait so long.
“I’m not sure my heart failure would be quite as bad if it hadn’t taken so long to treat me.
“There’s nothing that anyone can do about my long wait now but I don’t want anyone else to have to wait that long and miss out on the best available treatment.
“That’s why I’m supporting the British Heart Foundation’s Hearts Need More campaign.”