A STRANGER stepped in to help an elderly woman who was desperate to avoid a six-hour ambulance wait after her husband fell out of bed.

A woman, aged 68, from Rubery, decided to flag down a passer-by to help her husband in the early hours of the morning after being told the previous day an ambulance would be six hours.

On Wednesday, November 24, Kathleen Langham phoned paramedics at around 3:30pm from their home on Gannow Manor Crescent.

Malcolm, aged 64, has lost the use of his legs and suffers from dementia.

Kathleen was told an ambulance would take six hours to arrive.

A team of clinicians from the ambulance service rang Kathleen at around 5:30pm to further assess Malcolm.

Bromsgrove Advertiser: Kathleen Langham.Kathleen Langham.

Fortunately, Malcolm’s carer arrived at around 7pm who managed to lift him back into bed.

The following morning, Malcolm fell out of bed again and Kathleen decided to take matters into her own hands as she was ‘scared what might happen’.

“I was not going to phone the ambulance service again to be told we need to wait six hours,” said Mrs Langham.

“Malcolm was in pain, I needed to help him.

“So, I ran outside and tried to flag someone down to help because I didn’t know what else to do.

“A man in a cream Mini saw me waving and turned around at the nearby roundabout to come back.

Bromsgrove Advertiser: Malcolm Langham.Malcolm Langham.

“He came into the house and put Malcolm back into bed.

“The man told me his name was Lee. He was wearing a hi-vis jacket.

“My husband might have died if that man didn’t come in to help.

“The man needs some recognition – not many people would do what he did.

“People have told me I was stupid for letting a stranger come into my home, but I was desperate.”

With help from social services Kathleen is currently looking for respite care for Malcolm.

Kathleen added: “Malcolm is going to get worse with his dementia and I don’t know what might happen in the next few months.

“I should not have to flag someone down at 5am in the morning to get my husband into bed.

“This needs to stop.”

Kathleen wants to find ‘Lee’ to thank him for helping her as she said at the time ‘she was overcome with emotion, and didn’t thank the man properly.’

West Midlands Ambulance Service has apologised for the delay in responding to Malcolm.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We would like to apologise to the patient and his family for the delay in responding.

“Unfortunately, the whole of the NHS remains under severe pressure which is being felt intensely in our service in the West Midlands; hospital handover delays unfortunately mean patients are waiting longer for an ambulance response.

"Unfortunately, we were also dealing with high levels of demand from people with life-threatening conditions.

"We are working with all local partners across the health and care system to reduce delays so crews can respond to the next incident as quickly as possible, and staff and volunteers continue to work tirelessly to respond as soon as we can.

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“We are continuing to bolster frontline and control room staffing and have introduced a number of measures to help manage pressures in the service."