A WHITCHURCH mother has been angered after a long wait for an ambulance to respond to an emergency callout for her son.

Michelle San Antonio said she was made to feel she let down her son Erin San Antonio-Powell, 12.

Erin has a rare heart condition, along with other medical conditions, and carries a defibrillator with him.

On Monday, October 11, while at school, Erin began to suffer chest pains and a fast heart rate.

“The school rang at 12.30pm and when I got there they said it was going to be like a three-hour wait,” said Michelle.

“So we waited and then at 1.30pm, which was an hour after the initial call, West Midlands Ambulance Service upgraded him a category and said that they would be coming on blues and twos.”

However, she says an ambulance didn’t arrive until after 4pm – although the service times the arrival at 3.15pm.

Michelle said: “Even by it going up a category, they didn’t get there until 4.15pm.”

Michelle has also bemoaned the treatment she received from medics when they arrived, after they suggested she should have taken Erin to hospital herself – although the ambulance service says she declined paramedics’ help, and she ultimately drove Erin to hospital. He is now in Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

She added: “Erin’s got loads of difficulties that all need to be taken into consideration and he never asked anything.

“He said, knowing that he’s got the serious heart condition, why didn’t you just put him in your car and take him to the hospital yourself? Why is he waiting three-and-a-half hours for an ambulance? He just wouldn’t let me explain.”

She continued: “If he had a cardiac arrest in the car while I was on my own, that’s not a situation that I want to be in.

“That’s why we’ve always rang an ambulance. It’s not easy with Erin, he’s only 12 years old, but he’s 6’5”.

“It actually left me feeling like I couldn’t ring them again.”

Michelle has made a complaint to WMAS. She added: “They’ve always been great, they’ve always arrived on time, and their attitude is lovely. But that was awful, it wasn’t good at all.”

An ambulance service spokesman said: “We received a call to Sir John Talbots School at 1.29pm on 11th October, arriving at 3.15pm.

“Following assessment of the patient, the crew were preparing to transport the boy to hospital but this was refused by the patient’s mum, who said she preferred to take him herself and no longer wanted the ambulance, despite advice against this from ambulance staff. We would like to apologise for the time it took to us to respond to the original call.”