Advising with empathy and experience

Pensioner falls as paramedics take her home.

A York pensioner broke both legs when she fell as paramedics carried her upstairs.

Ella Hirst, 70, had been discharged from York Hospital only hours after she was injured just yards from her flat.

She was being carried up two flights of stairs to her home when she felt herself slipping from a chair.

She said: "I kept saying 'I'm falling, I'm falling', and they said 'you aren't'.

"I started to fall when I was on the stairs and they didn't believe me until I screamed the place down and they stopped.

"They put me down and told me to get back in the chair, but I couldn't because I can't hold my weight.

"They said I would be fine and they would hold me. But they dropped me when I stood up and I fell onto my knees and my head banged off the wall."

Ms Hirst, was being carried on a chair by four paramedics from YorMed, a York-based private ambulance company which had been commissioned by York Hospital to take the pensioner home.

She had been in hospital to receive treatment for cellulitis and was taken back the same day as her fall.

She added: "I was so happy to be coming home and now I can't move. I had no alternative but to go back to hospital."

Ms Hirst's daughter, Zoe, said her mum faced a lengthy stay on a ward but will not be returning to her flat because he has difficulty getting up the stairs.

Ashley Mason, chief officer at YorMed, said: "We are continuing our investigations and awaiting more information from Mrs Hirst who I have offered to visit."