An elderly veteran who waited over seven hours for an ambulance is now unrecognisable, according to his wife.

Frank Evans, 80, of Mold, was a “capable and able” man who experienced the occasional “minor fall” after being diagnosed with Parkinsons a couple of years ago, said wife Muriel Evans.

But after Mr Evans’s most recent fall, at his home in the early hours of Sunday morning, Mrs Evans said she is dismayed and shocked at the delay in response from the paramedics.

Mrs Evans said: “My husband, Frank, has got Parkinson’s disease and sometimes falls over but we often manage to get him up on his own between us. I’m 86, he’s 80, so sometimes the ambulance do have to come and help him after a fall.

“On Sunday morning, Frank fell over on the floor of the bathroom, lying flat on his tummy. He is 12 stone and I’m 7-and-a-half stone, so I phoned for an ambulance at about 1am because he had bashed his head, knees, arms and ribs on the cupboard and was very badly injured.”

In her panicked state, Mrs Evans decided to keep phoning the non-emergency ambulance service, who regularly help Mr Evans, as no support had turned up within the hour. Mrs Evans said: “The operator kept coming on the phone saying they will be there soon and in the end I told her the way it’s going he may die, because he’s already had one stroke and he can’t lie like that on his tummy for much longer.”

Mrs Evans then said an “unbelievable” turn of events occured, when two fire officers came to assess the situation at the couple’s home. Mrs Evans asked the fire officers, who appeared to be unable to properly assist Mr Evans, whether they had had training. Mrs Evans was shocked to discover the pair had only received half of the four-week training course, and “did not know what they were doing.”

She said: “Frank was lying there in so much pain and was literally crying. Everything had seized up. So I rang the paramedics again and I do not know what the operator was doing but when I checked after, they said the only call we had made was at 8am – it wasn’t, it was 1am.”

Seven hours later, Mr Evans was conveyed firstly to Wrexham Maelor Hospital, and following treatment, to Mold Community Hospital on Monday.

Mrs Evans said however that her husband is now unable to speak, to eat, or to go to the toilet. She said: “No one is going to admit that those seven hours lying on the floor is what’s ruined him. His brain is all over the place, and he’s seeing things that arern’t there.

“He is in one hell of a state and they don’t even tell me what’s wrong with him. It’s like I’m being treated as though I’m nothing.

“Before he fell over this time, he was running around, but now I don’t know whether he will come out again because he will either die here or be transferred to a care home because I can’t manage him like this.

“Of course the paramedics should of been here within the seven hours. He is a veteran, he fought in World War Two, and he won’t even be treated with respect. I’m worried sick about him and no one will tell me what is going on.

Andrew Long, the Welsh Ambulance Service’s Area Manager in North Wales, said: “This is obviously not the level of service we want to provide to our patients, and are so very sorry that Mr and Mrs Evans had to endure this wait for help.

“At the time of Mrs Evans’ call, all three hospitals in North Wales were extremely busy and as a result we were experiencing significant handover delays at hospitals.

“This, coupled with a spike in demand for ambulances on Saturday night into Sunday morning, meant that regrettably we did not have a resource to send to Mr Evans straight away.

“While we waited for the nearest appropriate resource to become available, we made multiple calls to Mrs Evans to check on her husband’s welfare but we know this is of little consolation when your loved one is in distress.

“We will be having a direct conversation with Mrs Evans about our response, and in the meantime would like to extend our thoughts and best wishes to Mr Evans.”