Teenage footballer waited five hours 'in agony' after breaking leg in North Lanarkshire

The mother of a teenage girl who endured a five-hour wait for an ambulance after breaking her leg at a football match has said it was the “hardest thing she has ever had to do”.

Brooke Paterson was injured in a tackle during a game between her Linlithgow Rose side and Cumbernauld United in North Lanarkshire on Sunday.

Despite an ambulance being called multiple times, it took five hours for one to arrive, leaving the 19-year-old lying “in agony” on the pitch, covered with jackets to keep her warm.

Her mother, Charlene, said all she could do was “pray the ambulance would show up” for her daughter.

‘Hardest thing I’ve done as a mother’

Brooke endured five hours on the damp pitch with a pile of coats and foil blankets in a bid to keep her warm.

Charlene said seven 999 calls were made to the emergency services, but it wasn’t until 8pm that an ambulance eventually turned up – despite the game kicking off at 2pm.

“Seeing Brooke lying in agony was the hardest thing I’ve had to do as a mother”, she told STV News.

“Your natural instinct is to protect your child regardless of their age, all I could do was try and keep her calm and warm and pray the ambulance would turn up”, she told STV News.

“I called the ambulance three times myself to advise of changes in Brookes’ condition, and I know there were at least another three to four calls made by others on the scene.

“None of these calls made a difference.

“My final call to them was at 7.16pm and the call took 12 minutes, after much pleading, I received a call back from a clinician at 7.42pm who had advised the call had been graded wrong, this call took seven minutes.

“In this time, there was a doctor on site whom I asked if he would speak to the ambulance service on my behalf. The doctor did this and came off the call, advising the ambulance would take 12-15 mins. At 8pm exactly, the ambulance arrived.”

Brooke's ambulance did not arrive until 8pm. — Brooke’s ambulance did not arrive until 8pm. Charlene Paterson via Supplied

Parliament apology

A complaint was raised with the Scottish Ambulance Service, and the issue was raised at Parliament, with First Minister John Swinney admitting the wait was an “error in classification”.

Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused Swinney of having “broken the system” during First Minister’s Questions on Thursday.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has since apologised, as has the First Minister.

“I apologise to Brooke Paterson”, he said.

“I’ve read the story this morning about the issue, I regret very much the experience Brooke Paterson has had.

“I looked into this this morning, and there will have to be further scrutiny about this because I’ve had limited time to look at this this morning.

“It looks to me as if an error was made in the classification of this particular call, which has not had the priority that it should have had.

“That’s what it looks like based on the limited time this morning I have had to look at that.

“That’s not acceptable, that is an error that has been made and we need to look into whether that is the case or whether there are other steps that need to be taken to remedy that.”

First Minister John Swinney has apologised to Brooke. STV News

A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said in a statement an investigation had been launched into the circumstances.

“We would like to sincerely apologise to Ms Paterson for the delay in the ambulance response and for any distress caused,” the statement said.

“We can confirm that we received a number of calls on September 21 to attend this incident but due to high demand and hospital turnaround times, which ranged between 90 minutes to three hours in the area, this significantly delayed our response and we unfortunately could not attend immediately.

“An investigation into Ms Paterson’s care will be carried out and any learnings implemented.

“When a time is appropriate, we would ask Ms Paterson or her family to contact our patient experience team directly so we can personally discuss our findings. We hope Ms Paterson is recovering well.”

Cumbernauld United Ladies FC hit out at the incident, with the club admitting it was left with concerns about “player safety”.

It read: “During a home match yesterday against Linlithgow Rose, a 50/50 challenge led to a serious injury to a Linlithgow player.

“We waited five hours for an ambulance to arrive whilst the player was left lying on the cold wet grass. To say we are concerned about player safety is an understatement. How can we expect our players to feel safe playing a game they love knowing that if the worst happens it could be hours before help arrives?

“As coaches our main concern is player safety and well being but how can we continue to manage this without the proper support.

“The SWF have been in touch with club representatives and hoping to offer support.

“Our thoughts are with the player in question and her family.”