This couple was on vacation from the US when disaster struck for them.
Ian Swanwick and his wife, Summer, were on vacation from America, visiting relatives in the UK.
When they were out one night driving their rental car, they were injured in a head-on collision.
Police arrived at the scene, and had to cut the couple out of the car. Of course, the next step would be for the couple to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.
But everyone invlolved, including the police, were shocked when the ambulance company, East Midlands Ambulance Service, told them that there was a two-hour delay, and they could not give an estimated time of arrival for when they could reach the scene.
Ian called his sister, who they were visiting, and told her the situation. She rushed to the scene, where firefighters were cutting them out of the car.
Unable to get an estimate on what time the ambulance would arrive, the fire service ferried them to the hospital in their place.
“It is outrageous that they had to be ferried to the hospital by the fire service because there was no ambulance available for two hours at least,” said Ian’s sister, Helen. “It is very lucky that my brother and his wife were not seriously hurt or who knows what might have happened?”
Ian and his wife were both discharged with minor injuries, and now an investigation is being done on the ambulance service. EMAS apologized, saying, “We’re very sorry for the delay that the patients experienced and apologize for any possible distress caused. The entire health system was under exptreme pressure during Monday evening and we were dealing with a high volume of life-threatening calls.”
Ian and his wife thanked the fire service workers who made the decision to take them to the hospital themselves, saying they “did the best they could in difficult circumstances.”
