The father-of-four went into cardiac arrest moments after arriving into hospital (Picture: Darrel Wilson / SWNS)

A dad who waited nearly nine hours for an ambulance said he would be dead if his wife didn’t drive him to the hospital herself.

Darrel Wilson, 54, had been suffering chest pains and shortness of breath when his wife Debbie phoned for an ambulance at 10:07pm.

Eight hours and eight more frantic 999 calls later, Debbie decided to drive Darrel the 20-minute trip to Royal Stoke Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent herself.

At 7:46am on October 9 last year, paramedics pulled up at the father of four’s front door some 81 minutes after Debbie had already driven him there.

Darrel went into cardiac arrest when he arrived at the hospital and needed emergency heart surgery which included two stents being fitted.

Now the worker for manufacturer JCB is now calling on people who need critical care to ‘get a taxi’ rather than phone 999.

Darrel said: ‘The phone operator just kept telling us, the next ambulance in the area will be coming to you – but it never did.’

He underwent a major surgery (Picture: Darrel Wilson / SWNS)

‘We called 999 eight times and kept being asked the same questions.’

Call handlers told the couple an ambulance would be with them ‘as soon as possible’ while Darrel was left writhing on the floor overnight.

Sales administrator Debbie said: ‘At first when we spoke with someone, we felt confident we were in good hands.

‘They took all the details off me, his symptoms, my address, and asked, “Is he conscious? Is he breathing?”.

‘At the time he was, and they asked, “What’s the ratio of pain between one and 10?” He said “20”. They said, “We’ll have an ambulance to you as soon as we can”.

‘But the ambulance never showed, and in the end, Darrel’s pain was too much to bear.’

‘In the end, Debbie drove me,’ Darrel added, ‘and if she hadn’t of done it, I wouldn’t be here right now.’

Wife Debbie frantically phoned 999 eight more times (Picture: Darrel Wilson / SWNS)

The wait proving too gruelling, Debbie drove Darrel at around 6am to Royal Stoke University Hospital.

She abandoned her car as she rushed her husband into hospital before he went into cardiac arrest only 10 minutes later.

Doctors managed to resuscitate him after 11 defibrillator compressions.

Darrel underwent emergency surgery and had two stents put into his heart – the tiny tubes keep arteries, which carry blood, open to lower heart risk.

Discharged five days later, Darrel is on the mend but remains shaken by the dizzying wait that placed his life on the line.

‘The nurses have said that if I had waited any longer for the ambulance, I wouldn’t have a stent and I wouldn’t be alive,’ he said.

‘We just kept hanging on, and every time we rang, we had to answer the same questions every time. They don’t tell you how long it’ll be.

‘I was in that much pain that I was on the floor most of the time. I thought it was the end of my life. The pain was just horrendous.

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‘I just want to tell other people so it doesn’t happen to them.

‘If it happened to me again, I wouldn’t wait for an ambulance, no way – I’d go straight away and get a taxi.’

A spokesperson for West Midlands Ambulance Service said: ‘We would like to apologise to Mr Wilson and his family for the delayed response.

‘The ambulance service relies on each part of the health and social care system working together so that our ambulances can get to patients in the community quickly.

‘Sadly, the pressures we are seeing in health and social care lead to long hospital handover delays with our crews left caring for patients that need admitting to hospital rather than responding to the next call.

‘The result is that our crews are delayed reaching patients.

‘We are working incredibly hard with all of our NHS and social care partners to prevent these delays, looking at new ways to safely hand over patients quickly so that our crews can respond more rapidly and save more lives.’

Those experiencing a category two call – for a serious condition like chest pain – should wait for an average of 18 minutes for an ambulance, according to parliamentary figures.

But nine out of 10 ambulances arrive within 40 minutes.

Have you or someone you know experienced an hours-long wait for an ambulance? Get in with our news team by emailing [email protected] or [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

‘We called 999 eight times.’