A GRANDMOTHER had nothing to laugh about after breaking her funny bone and having to wait 90 minutes for an ambulance.
Pauline Randall, 61, slipped on The Walk, the path that runs between the High Street and Waitrose car park, at around 5.45pm on Thursday.
She fell with all of her weight on her right arm and could not get back up.
Mrs Randall, of Scrub Rise, did not have her mobile phone on her and so cried out for help.
Luckily, two men working at Darwin Recruitment, in the High Street, heard her calls and came to her aid.
The grandmother-of-two, who suffers from high blood pressure, said: "I knew I had hurt myself badly and there was no one about – I called out and a couple of young chaps came out of their office.
"They wanted to get me up off the floor but I knew it would do more damage.
"I remembered my husband's mobile number and they called him for me from their phone.
"They knew I needed an ambulance as it was so painful I couldn't move – I was screaming in pain."
Mrs Randall's husband arrived in 10 minutes and by this point the men had managed to put some magazines under her to make her more comfortable on the wet ground. They supported her head and spoke to her to try to distract her from the pain.
Mrs Randall said: "I waited and waited and we kept phoning the ambulance but it went on and on and I was in so much pain.
"I heard one ambulance come past and then another – each time I thought it was for me.
"I waited for 90 minutes until help finally arrived."
When an ambulance did reach her, Mrs Randall was given gas and air and it took half an hour to get her stabilised in the ambulance.
She was taken to Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital where she was told her humerus was broken in three places.
Mrs Randall left hospital at 11pm with her arm in a sling.
Her husband David, 64, said: "It was very distressing to hear her cries of pain and being unable to do anything.
"We were afraid to move her in case we did more damage, we just needed expert assistance.
"Thank goodness for the community-minded action of the staff from Darwin who went to great lengths of discomfort themselves to help make her comfortable.
"The police told me they had to wait two hours for an ambulance earlier in the week when someone had been knocked over by a car.
"I am concerned, not only by the service but with the damage to morale this inflicts on frontline staff. Emergency services should be the last to suffer budget cuts."
A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said they could not find a record of an ambulance being dispatched to that location on that day.
