A WOMAN has told how her husband died after waiting for an ambulance for over 90 minutes after he had a heart attack, despite six 999 calls.

Lesley Weekley said she called an ambulance on a non-strike day and that her husband was fit and had never been to see a doctor.

She told Bev Turner on GB News: “My husband woke me up about one o’clock saying he had indigestion, and asked if I could get him a couple of tablets because when I went to give them to him, he was slurring his words, and he was almost incoherent . He was clammy and sweaty and then ice cold.

“So I just straightaway picked my phone up and dialled 999 and they said, ‘a clinician will ring you back, if he deteriorates, ring me back’.

“And I did that. Every time I rang, I said he’s deteriorating, he’s getting worse…and then the third time I rang I said I can’t feel his pulse.

“He was still breathing but I didn’t know then what that meant, but the paramedics later told me it meant he was probably shutting down and the heart was protecting itself by taking blood away from extremities. So that’s why I couldn’t get a pulse.”

She added: “On the sixth phone call – we’d still had no phone call from the clinician – he stopped breathing while I was on the phone.

“I dragged him off the bed and started doing CPR and I was doing it for about 20 minutes…

“It’s so hard to do, and I wasn’t sure I was doing it correctly in the end because there was no strength left in my arms.

“And then the paramedics came in. They were absolutely amazing and they just would not give up. They just threw everything at it you know but then told me that he had passed.”

“He had never been never into the doctor’s ever. And he was just so fit. I can’t – none of us can believe it.”

She spoke out on a day when new figures showed that for ambulance delays for life-threatening calls in London reached a new record high in December.

The data shows that delays worsened by 34% in London compared to November.