A footballer who suffered a double leg break and was left in agony for five hours waiting for an ambulance said the ordeal won’t derail her dream of playing for Scotland.
Brooke Paterson, was playing centre-back for Linlithgow Rose Ladies FC at the weekend when a tackle against Cumbernauld United went wrong.
The 19-year-old, who has just returned from a football scholarship in the United States, told how she heard her leg ‘snap’ and knew it was likely to be a serious.
She said: ‘All I can remember is screaming in pain.
‘It was the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. I heard a snap when it happened, but I was praying it wasn’t too bad.’
While she knew ‘it was going to be a little bit of a wait’, she said she did not think for a second help would take hours to arrive.
She said: ‘As time went on, I became more and more frustrated and upset. The fact they were just leaving me out in the cold, I’d broken my leg, I was in absolute agony. How could they even do that to me?
‘I just don’t understand how you could leave someone in that position – anyone – just lying there, without any help, and without any pain relief.
Brooke Paterson, centre-back for Linlithgow Rose Ladies FC, endured a ‘horrific’ and ‘unacceptable’ wait for an ambulance after breaking her leg in a game
‘I actually spoke to them on the phone myself at one point, and there seemed to be no urgency whatsoever. I was crying, I was having a mini-panic attack. You could tell I was in distress and they just weren’t responding in the way they should have been. ‘
She said she was freezing cold and lying in a very uncomfortable position, unable to straighten the injured leg which made her back very sore.
Despite a number of 999 calls over the time period it took a doctor from another Cumbernauld team – alerted there by the chairman of the home side – to intervene before help arrived.
The teenage footballer was eventually taken to Forth Valley Hospital and was shocked to learn she had a double-leg break.
She added: ‘I’d never broken a bone in my life. They operated and put a nail in through my knee. It goes all the way down to the ankle. It’s been pinned at both sides. They also slit my leg in different places so they could straighten it up.’
The accident happened in the 70th minute of the SWF Regional League Cup.
The young footballer had to be covered in coats and blankets to keep her warm while she waited several hours in falling temperatures for an ambulance
An X-ray showed she had broken two bones in her leg in the mid-game injury
Although struggling to even take a step at the moment, the athlete who is studying law insisted she will get back on the pitch.
Ms Paterson thanked everyone who helped her on Sunday and said: ‘Ultimately it’s my dream to be a professional footballer. I need to be realistic about it, but if it happened, it would be a dream come true. I’ll keep working towards that and see if it comes about eventually.
‘It’s still a dream of mine to play for Scotland, definitely. I hope that all the hard work and the setbacks pay off. I just need to keep going at it.
‘I definitely won’t let this injury stop me. I’ll be doing my best to get back to football.’
Meanwhile, she said she was making a complaint to the Scottish Ambulance Service and vowed to fight for others who have experienced a similar trauma insisting that change is necessary for those experiencing unacceptable delays.
She said: ‘I think there needs to be more urgency around situations such as this. I get that the NHS is busy, but I don’t understand how they could leave anyone for that amount of time without any help whatsoever.
‘Something in the system needs to change, priorities need changed.’
Her mother, Charlene, added the Scottish Ambulance Service had got it wrong and continued: ‘I know how these call centres work. I spent 10 years in the police.
Ms Paterson lies on a hospital trolley with her leg in a cast after the horror injury
Doctors had to insert pins in Ms Paterson’s bone following the break
‘If I was a supervisor in a situation like that and I’d seven or eight calls coming in for the same situation, that would catch my eye. And I’d be looking more into it and wondering what’s going on with this one.
‘It’s the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. Seeing my daughter there, completely helpless.’
The ambulance service admitted it had received a number of calls about the incident and apologised for the delays.
A spokesman urged Ms Paterson to get in touch to discuss the issue once she is well enough.
