EXCLUSIVE: 93-year-old woman with broken hip left waiting for ambulance on roadside

A 93-year-old woman who collapsed and broke her hip was left lying in agony on a footpath for almost 90 minutes waiting for an ambulance to arrive to bring her to the hospital.

The woman collapsed along the street in Nenagh last week as she was walking with her care assistant.

Local residents and motorists rushed to her aid, with people bringing a chair to place her in, water and an umbrella to keep her shaded from the sun. Thankfully, it was one of the few days where it wasn’t raining incessantly.

An emergency call for an ambulance was made at 2.57pm, but it was not until 50 minutes later that a paramedic arrived.

During all this time, the frail woman was in obvious distress but conscious and was able to tell those helping that she was in pain and the pain was getting worse.

The paramedic checked her vital signs and placed the injured woman on a drip.

The paramedic, along with those who offered to help, constantly reassured the woman that she was going to be alright and the ambulance was on the way.

For some reason it was not possible to screen the woman from passing cars, with large tractors pulling trailers passing within feet of her.

However, shortly before the ambulance arrived the woman took a turn and had to be lifted out of the chair while in agony and laid on the footpath.

When the ambulance crew eventually arrived they placed the woman on a stretcher and departed the scene shortly after 5pm.

The woman was late due to undergo surgery to have her hip replaced.

The HSE, in a statement to the Tipperary Star, said: “While the HSE cannot comment on individual cases when to do so might reveal information in relation to identifiable individuals, breaching the ethical requirement on us to observe our duty of confidentiality, we can confirm that we received a call to assist an injured party in Nenagh on July 25.

"At the time we received this call we were experiencing very high demand for 999 services for patients with immediately life-threatening injuries and illnesses which, unfortunately, meant that some patients had longer waits.”