Upset as injured father left stranded on Pevensey beach as the tide comes in

Donna Thomas says they called for an ambulance three times but were told on the first two calls the situation was ‘not life threatening’.

She said, “This was a medical emergency. He would have drowned if we hadn’t moved him. They made a traumatic situation far worse.”

The 50-year-old said they were walking on the beach after a family meal for her father’s 70th birthday on Saturday (June 1) when her son Luke, 30, screamed out.

She said, “He was in agony, he was wet, he was cold. He was crying out and screaming in pain.” She said they were instructed by the ambulance service to move Lee to get him in a car and take him to hospital.

Staff from The Moorings restaurant came to help as well as a passer-by. First they tried using a chair to move him, then the passer-by found a piece of fence to move Luke further up the beach.

After around 45 minutes an ambulance arrived at the scene, but Ms Thomas said once paramedics arrived they had to send for a second ambulance, and use their mobile phones to see as the sun had gone down. He was eventually taken to hospital in Hastings. Donna said, “They said his legs will never be the same. We don’t know if we made it worse because we were advised to move him.”

SECAmb said,“We take all concerns raised seriously and appreciate this patient would have been in considerable pain. All our calls are triaged in order to prioritise the response of our finite resources to immediately life-threatening calls.

“We wish the patient a good recovery and would invite him or Ms Thomas to contact us directly so we can look into these concerns in more detail.”

The family are trying to get hold of the passer-by to thank him. Contact the Herald if it is you.