A Wiltshire mother has been left permanently disabled after waiting nearly two hours for an ambulance, despite showing clear signs of a stroke—a situation her family says should never have happened.
Susan Harding, 57, suffered a severe haemorrhagic stroke at her home in Melksham last December. The emergency call was placed at 4:59 p.m., but the ambulance didn’t arrive until nearly two hours later. That delay, her partner says, cost her any chance of a full recovery.
Now paralysed on the left side of her body and requiring round-the-clock care, Susan’s life—and the lives of those around her—has been irreversibly changed.
Her partner, Rob Christensen, 63, says he watched helplessly as time ticked by, calling emergency services repeatedly only to be asked the same questions over and over again. He believes the delay allowed additional bleeding and pressure on her brain, worsening the damage.
“We’re told every second counts,” Rob said. “But we were met with silence and repetition. It was like shouting into the void.”
Susan was eventually placed in an induced coma and transferred from the Royal United Hospital in Bath to Southmead Hospital in Bristol, where she underwent brain surgery. She remained in a coma for nearly a month. Now, after being moved through multiple hospitals for rehabilitation, her prognosis remains grim. She’s lost her independence, struggles with memory and coordination, and experiences anxiety when alone.
Rob, a retired project liaison consultant, says the emotional toll is immeasurable. “It feels like a form of grief,” he said. “The person I love is still here, but everything has changed. Our life as we knew it is gone.”
He’s now campaigning for improvements to emergency response systems—calling for real-time tracking of ambulance arrivals, streamlined call-handling procedures, and a transparent plan for future improvements. A petition launched by the family demanding an inquiry into Susan’s case has gathered more than 48,000 signatures.
The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust has apologised, stating the delay was “unacceptable” and blaming unprecedented service pressures and hospital handover delays.
But for Rob, those explanations ring hollow.
“We’re told to act FAST when someone has a stroke,” he said. “I did everything right. But when the system doesn’t respond the way it promises, it’s not just frustrating—it’s devastating. We were failed. And no apology will undo the damage that’s been done.”
