A heartbroken husband has slammed 999 responders after paramedics took more than two hours to treat his elderly wife who died from a head injury after falling outside her High Wycombe home.

Margaret Fuller, 83, lay on the ground outside her home in Middlebrook Road for more than two hours before an ambulance arrived to take her to Stoke Mandeville Hospital on November 6 last year.

Mrs Fuller, who took warfarin – a medication that is used as a blood thinner that helps prevent clots from forming – for a heart condition, had spent the morning with her daughter shopping in John Lewis and had returned home at around 12.20pm that day.

After waving her daughter off, Mrs Fuller fell backwards, injuring her head, and was discovered around ten minutes later.

Despite repeated distressed 999 calls, it was hours before an ambulance arrived and, in this time, Mrs Fuller lost consciousness. She died two days later.

Mr Fuller believes if the emergency call handler had asked if his wife was taking warfarin, she may have got the treatment she needed sooner.

He said: “Call handlers have a list of questions they ask when someone phones 999, but asking if the patient is taking warfarin is not one of them.

“My wife didn’t get the necessary treatment she needed. I can’t talk about what happened because it is still so upsetting. This year was supposed to be our 60th wedding anniversary.  

“I think it’s very important that people know what happened. The NHS considers it vital to carry a card saying you take warfarin, so it is ridiculous that it is not on the crib sheet of questions that call handlers ask.”

At an inquest into Mrs Fuller’s death last week, a statement from South Central Ambulance revealed that a 999 call was first made at 12.35pm stating she had fallen over and was vomiting. 

The family say they told the call handler Mrs Fuller was on warfarin. 

She was conscious and breathing and the call handler triaged the call as a category three, for an ambulance to arrive within 120 minutes.

There were no available ambulances in the area at the time. A second call was placed in a queue, awaiting a clinical practitioner, but there were none available.

Further calls were made and at 1.46pm, Mrs Fuller was said to be in more pain and had been sick. Because she was starting to show signs of clinical shock, the call was upgraded to a category two, requiring the ambulance service to attend in 18 minutes.

A rapid response vehicle (RRV) was assigned to the call at 1.52pm and arrived at 2pm. Mrs Fuller was later admitted at 3.47pm.  

SCAS said that while the ambulance arrived within the correct response time, the dispatcher should have “taken into consideration that Mrs Fuller was exposed to the elements and should have dispatched the RRV when it became available at 1.30pm”.

Crispin Butler, senior coroner, said he would be writing a letter to SCAS highlighting his concerns with the categorisation process.

A statement from SCAS repeated their “sincere condolences” to Mrs Fuller’s family, adding: “Ambulance response times are determined nationally however as a trust we take every opportunity to learn from incidents and feedback to national bodies.”

Her cause of death was recorded as intracranial bleed post-fall on warfarin and ruled as an accident.