Elderly woman left in agony as she waited for ambulance during ‘unprecedented’ demand

An 89-year-old great-grandmother writhed in pain “like a wounded animal” for hours because no ambulance was available to take her to hospital.

AN 89-year-old great-grandmother writhed in pain “like a wounded animal” for more than five hours because no ambulance was available to take her to hospital.

Shirley Prestipino broke a hip in two places and was left with bruising on her back and legs after a serious fall in the kitchen of her Worongary home on Monday last week. Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the day saw the fourth-highest volume of triple-0 calls in Queensland history.

Her daughter Tina Barber, who was visiting Ms Prestipino at the time, called for an ambulance at 1.41pm.

It was the first of several increasingly desperate calls, with Ms Barber saying she feared her mother would die in agony on the hard-tiled floor before help arrived.

“It was a day I’ll never forget,” Ms Barber said.

“She tripped over as she was getting up out of a chair as I was leaving and fell backwards on to the tiles.

“She was just sort of all twisted, her legs were twisted underneath her, and she’d hit her head on the wall as she hit the ground, so instantly I thought ‘I’m going to need an ambulance, I’m not going to be able to move her’.”

Tina Barber speaking to the Bulletin about the ordeal suffered by her mother Shirley Prestipino. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Ms Prestipino, a much-loved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, had a heart attack nine years ago and has also survived two rounds of breast cancer and a brain tumour.

But Ms Barber said it was the first time the family had ever needed to call triple-0.

“If I could have taken her to hospital myself I would have but we couldn’t touch her. I could not move her or even touch her as she screamed in pain … She lives in a double-storey house, which is even worse, because she was upstairs. When she fell, she hit the balustrading, so her head was jammed against the balustrading. We couldn’t even lay her, we couldn’t even straighten her neck. She was in a crumpled heap. It was just horrific.

“... After a couple of hours I started to panic because I thought, ‘Oh my God we’re not going to get an ambulance’, so I rang again and they just kept telling me the same thing, that they had one of the worst days on the Gold Coast and they were trying everything they could to get an ambulance.

“I tried to explain that she was completely crumpled up. We knew she’d broken her hip because she couldn’t be moved. The leg that she broke her hip in was doubled up underneath her and it was all swollen.

“She’s also on blood thinners, so I didn’t know whether she was internally bleeding ... I had no idea.”

Shirley Prestipino with her daughter Tina Barber.

After almost three hours, during which Ms Prestipino suffered on the floor “like a wounded animal”, a Queensland Ambulance Service paramedic arrived.

But it would be several more hours before an ambulance could be found to take Ms Prestipino to Robina Hospital.

“I think I rang emergency about four times,” Ms Barber said. “It was just starting to get dark, and a paramedic pulled up outside the house (at 4.22pm), which I was a bit disappointed about because it wasn’t an ambulance.

“He was amazing. He was on another call at Helensvale and he kept seeing it coming up that an ambulance still hadn’t been dispatched so when he finished there he came straight to my mum’s house to see what was going on.

“He knew straight away she’d broken a hip. She was in quite a lot of pain at this stage. She’d been lying on that floor for way too long. Her back was aching, she was getting cramps.

“Her breathing was starting to get shallow. He administered some pain relief and started to ring around to see where the ambulance was himself because she was in quite a lot of stress.”

Tina Barber speaking to the Bulletin about the ordeal suffered by her mother Shirley Prestipino. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Health officials said the ambulance arrived at 6.53pm. Ms Prestipino got to hospital about 8pm.

Ms Barber said she and other family members who came to help were “horrified, disgusted and still traumatised” by what they saw. However, she said she did not wish to “take it out” on the ambulance service, or the paramedic who came to help, who did not leave until the ambulance arrived, despite his shift being finished.

“He even took the time to call the next day to check on mum’s condition,” Ms Barber said.

“These people are the true heroes of this broken system.

But she remains scarred by the experience.

“The most horrific thing was the wait. We’ve never had to use emergency before.

“I really did expect my mother to die on the floor that day. I really thought it was going to happen.

“... She kept saying, ‘where are they, where are they’ because she knew she was in a bad way.

“I was totally useless. I could do absolutely nothing for her.

“I didn’t know what to do.

“That poor old woman lying on that floor – I still can’t get that vision out of my head. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.

“It’s unacceptable.”

Shirley Prestipino with her daughter Tina Barber.

To add insult to injury, Ms Barber said that surgery for her mother, who is expected to remain in hospital for another six weeks, was delayed because of pressure on resources at Robina.

“They were supposed to operate that night, but they couldn’t because the hospital was full,” Ms Barber said.

“Surgery was postponed again the next day and she was finally operated on Thursday morning. She has lost a lot of blood.

“They’re still struggling to get her out of bed because of her injuries. They sat her in a chair yesterday, which was quite painful for her.

“They just have to keep giving her blood because of the amount she lost during the surgery.

“I’m starting to think if she had been taken to emergency when she needed it that she wouldn’t be in such a state that she is now.”

DELAY DUE TO ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ DEMAND

THE head of the ambulance service on the Gold Coast says Monday last week was “just horrific”, with lower acuity patients facing longer wait times than normal.

Queensland Ambulance Service Assistant Commissioner Peter Warrener said “huge demand” caused the delays, including 89-year-old Worongary resident Shirley Prestipino waiting for hours after falling and breaking her hip.

“It was very excessive,” Mr Warrener said. “It was unprecedented demand for us. It was a pretty bad day.

“We hadn’t seen that sort of significant demand since the initial (Covid-19) Omicron wave in January.

“If you look at the Southport Operations centre ... on the Monday in question we did 981 triple-0 calls, where we normally average only 646, so it was a very, very busy day.”

Mr Warrener said staff had worked hard to manage the demand, with a paramedic reaching Ms Prestipino two hours and 41 minutes after the first call to triple-0. But it was not the response time the service aimed for.

“Minutes feel like hours, hours feel like days to a person and it’s just not what is ideal, but again this day was just unprecedented demand.

“We were trying to make sure that we got the best response to the right patient at the right time. Obviously on this occasion, it wasn’t the timely response that we would like. But there was just huge demand on the Gold Coast.”

On the day in question Telstra activated a pre-approved automated voice message advising triple-0 callers of the high demand. It was the first time the measure had been used in Queensland.

“That’s the first time that I’d ever seen that in my 39 years in the ambulance service,” Mr Warrener said. “... I hope they never do it again. But again, last Monday was just horrific.”

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Originally published as Elderly woman left in agony as she waited for ambulance during ‘unprecedented’ demand