A woman has told how she was left waiting 12 hours for an ambulance after “cracking” her leg.

Joanne Rutherford, who turns 61 today (July 22), slipped in her garden on the morning of Tuesday July 20 and was not seen to by paramedics until 12 hours later.

West Midlands Ambulance Service has apologised to Mrs Rutherford, but said they were experiencing a very high number of calls on Tuesday caused by the hot weather and Covid.

Her husband, Stewart Rutherford, 62, has asked for more to be done to stop such events happening to others in the future.

His wife remained in the scorching sun all day after saying she heard a “cracking” sound which left her unable to get off the floor.

Mr Rutherford said: “She was sat in 31C heat, screaming in pain.

“You wouldn’t leave a dog out there in pain and in that heat.

“We had to remove her clothes and cover her in wet towels just to keep her cool.”

He added: “If I could have taken her pain I would have.

“Something should be in place to stop this happening. The system is broken.”

Mr Rutherford phoned 999 at 8:33am and it was not until 8:50pm that his wife was taken from their home in of Pershore Road, Evesham, to Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

The ambulance was eventually rushed to the scene when Joanne began to throw up blood shortly after 8pm.

Mr Rutherford said: “I thought she was going to die.

“She was so angry, but she doesn’t blame the paramedics.

“We understand there are people in life-or-death situations but this could have been.”

At the hospital it was discovered Joanne had broken her femur and she went into surgery yesterday, her husband has not yet been allowed to visit.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said they received over 6,400 calls on Tuesday, a typical busy day is around 4,000.

They added that the hot weather and an increase in covid cases likely contributed to this.

Nathan Hudson, Emergency Services Operations Delivery Director said: “I would like to apologise wholeheartedly for the length of time it took to get to Mrs Rutherford.

“We continue to see high levels of demand for our service and our staff are working tirelessly to get to patients as quickly as possible.

“We prioritise our sickest and most severely injured patients. Everyone who needs an ambulance will get one, but we are incredibly busy."