Gran, 86, waits 25 hours in hospital corridor for bed after heart attack before giving up and going home

An 86-year-old woman who had suffered a suspected heart attack waited 25 hours in a hospital corridor for a ward bed - before giving up and going home.

Maria Bodea, 86, had a suspected heart attack at home and was taken to St Helier Hospital in Sutton, London, by ambulance - arriving in hospital at around 6.30pm on Tuesday (September 17). But her family say there were no ward beds available and the gran-of-two was put on a trolley bed in a corridor with up to 20 others.

Widow Maria and her daughter Sanda Ghiurcusor, 57, a medical PA from Banstead in Surrey, were positioned next to a door leading outside, forcing them to wear woolly hats to keep warm.

Maria underwent a CT scan of the head and bladder tests and was referred to a consultant for further tests on Thursday (September 19) but decided she couldn't stay another night in the corridor. After some medication changes, she self-discharged herself on Wednesday (September 18) - 25 and a half hours after she arrived in hospital.

Sanda says others sleeping in the corridor said they'd been waiting there since Sunday (September 15). She says staff said the situation was the same across every trust in the country.

Sanda said: "It was a big line of beds next to the wall. We were put straight in the corridor near the automatic doors so we had cold coming in - it was a really bad night. People could walk past, cleaners walk past, and there's no privacy.

"It's not like the staff is not nice, everyone does a brilliant job but the management doesn't seem to invest in what's needed. It's not the doctor's fault - you can see the staff are stressed and embarrassed."

A spokesperson for Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust said: “While we always do our best for our patients, these are not the conditions we want to care for them in and we are really sorry that Mrs Bodea did not have a good experience. 

“When our services are exceptionally busy, as they are at the moment, we sometimes have to care for people in other areas of the hospital until a suitable bed becomes available - this is always only a temporary measure and patients are supervised by clinical teams at all times.”