Thommo's fury at ambulance delay (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Thommo's fury at ambulance delay

1:40pm Thursday 13th September 2007 in Football By Nick Mashiter

Devizes Town boss Paul Thompson was furious after injured striker Joe O'Chuko had to wait in agony for more than an hour for an ambulance to take him to hospital.

The striker broke his tibia, dislocated his ankle and damaged ligaments in a challenge with Corsham Town's Kevin O'Mahoney on Tuesday night and will be out for eight months.

The former Biddestone ace went down ten minutes into the second half, forcing the game to be abandoned at 1-1, but had to wait 37 minutes for the first response paramedic to arrive, leaving Thompson outraged.

"It is a joke if that is a rapid response," said Thompson.

"He was in excruciating pain and on cold ground and probably didn't realise the time but, in my eyes and everyone else's, that level of delay is unacceptable.

"What would happen if he was unconscious or had a heart attack? It is shambolic."

O'Chuko was treated with oxygen and morphine on the pitch before the ambulance, which came from Bath, finally arrived at 9:57pm to take him to the Great Western Hospital in Swin-don. The forward had an operation yesterday to have a metal plate inserted into his leg and reset his ankle.

A Great Western Amb-ulance Trust sopkesman said: We are confident that this call was correctly categorised using the information provided to us. A rapid response vehicle arrived within 33 minutes which is inside the response time requirements of 60 minutes.''