Pregnant woman 'nearly died' waiting an hour for an ambulance .

A woman nearly died from an ectopic pregnancy after waiting an hour
for an ambulance despite calling 999 three times because operators did
not think her condition was life-threatening.
Theresa Coombs,
40, and partner Dean Goodhew, 45, were repeatedly told by call centre
staff to 'hang on' as someone would be with them in 20 minutes.
Mr
Goodhew claims it was only when a paramedic eventually arrived and
called for an ambulance herself that Ms Coombs was taken to Luton and
Dunstable Hospital for a life-saving operation.



Theresa Coombs was taken to the Luton and Dunstable Hospital She had lost several pints of blood internally and surgeons said
without treatment she would have been dead within half and hour.Ms Coombs, from Luton, Beds., had suffered an ectopic pregnancy - in
which a fertilised egg gets stuck in the fallopian tube and begins to
grow there.
In her case the embryo was seven weeks old. Ms
Coombs, who already has a 17-year-old son, began to suffer from extreme
abdominal pains and pins and needles in her arms, legs and feet while
at home on the evening of 12 October.
She said: 'The whole
thing was a total nightmare. At home I was deteriorating really badly.
I couldn't hang on any longer and kept howling and screaming. It was a
life-or-death situation.'I'm disgusted the ambulance service told Dean it didn't seem life-threatening. They should send somebody out regardless.'When they actually got here, the paramedics were brilliant. It was the connection at the call centre that was the problem.'It's
very hard psychologically to be told you are pregnant and then lose the
baby. Then I think of how close I came to death. Another half an hour
and I wouldn't be alive now.'My son has been upset from the shock of it all, and Dean feared the worst when he was at the hospital.'The
doctors at the hospital, who were brilliant, told me they were scooping
the blood out of me. After the operations the surgeons said I scared
the life out of them.' Ms Coombs was in hospital for four days after her ordeal and has been signed off work for six weeks.Her
partner said: 'Theresa couldn't sit down, she was screaming and she
started to faint. Her condition was getting worse with each 999 call I
made and only during the third one did they say they'd send a
paramedic. Meanwhile, Theresa was bleeding to death.'I can't
diagnose an ectopic pregnancy so I didn't know what was going on. She
was very lucky to survive. I think she would have died if I hadn't
pressed for the ambulance to get here.' An ambulance service
spokesman said they had received an official complaint from the family
and were investigating the incident.


Just makes you think how lucky we are here.