THE family of a man who died after a two hour delay in sending an ambulance say they will campaign to make sure others do not suffer the same way.

A coroner heard how Peter James' heart temporarily stopped beating as he lay on the floor of his Wokingham home waiting for paramedics to arrive.
His wife found found him trapped at the side of his bed early in the morning with his leg at an "awkward angle".

After four separate calls and more than two hours in the care of his family the 72-year-old was rushed to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, where he later died.
The delay was caused by ambulances being diverted to more urgent incidents or unable to attend as crews neared the end of their shift.

Speaking after the inquest the 72-year-old's wife, Jennifer, said the family think the ambulance trust was overstretched and will be campaigning to make politicians realise the burden placed on the emergency service.

"My husband was quite a remarkable man," she said. "He battled illness for 19 years and was a great campaigner and supporter of the NHS.

"We will make sure there are changes to the system. We think they were under resourced. If I had rung for an ambulance at a less busy time they could have sent one.

"We want to make sure the politicians know what they have done to the health service.

"I have great respect for the NHS and the ambulance they were amazing as were the people that work for them."

The couple, who celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in August, lived on Priest Avenue in Wokingham.

The father of two suffered from amyloidosis, an incurable disease that causes a build-up of unusual proteins in tissues and organs stopping them working.

The retired insurance worker had a kidney and a liver transplant after the disease attacked his organs.

The rejection of the donor kidney led to him being hospitalised and put on dialysis shortly before the fall.

Mrs James phoned the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust (SCAS) when she first found her husband at 6.35am on Friday, October 2.

She thought an ambulance would be dispatched quickly but SCAS gave the call a low priority.

She called two more times, once hanging up before an operator had time to answer, asking for an ambulance at around 7.45am.

The couple's daughter, Caroline Eastland, phoned at 8.44am when her father stopped breathing. Mrs James shouted 'he's dead' across the room before the incident was classed as life-threatening.

An ambulance was on the scene less than six minutes later.

Speaking at the inquest at Reading Town Hall on Thursday, March 31, Matt Widdows, Emergency Operations Centre Manager for SCAS, said the clinician who took the second call could have probed more for more details.

"After the first and third phone call a callback should have been made. That didn't happen."

A report found the trust had correctly implemented the diagnostic NHS Pathways software to diagnose the first call based on information received.

Ms Eastland said: "If we were told it would be at least 30 minutes till an ambulance arrived there might have been things we would have done differently.

"We were aware it was a life threatening incident."

Recording a narrative verdict Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford said: "Mr James died on October 2, 2015 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.

"He died from complication of a fracture to the neck of his right femur suffered in an unwitnessed accidental fall at home, on October 2, 2015, and exacerbated by existing heart disease and medication.

"The exact time of the fall is not known but a delay of nearly two hours for the arrival of an ambulance with a consequent delay in admission to hospital and medical treatment may have contributed to the outcome."