A frail pensioner who suffered multiple knee fractures after falling in Totnes town centre lay in agony on the pavement for two hours before an ambulance turned up.

Patricia May, 74, tripped over the raised, bumpy base of a leaning bollard at the junction of Ticklemore Street and The Plains.

She went down “very hard” and was covered in cuts and bruises, had a bump the size of a “duck egg” on her bloody forehead and was suffering from a severely injured kneecap and shock.

On top of all that, the septuagenarian had been in the hospital the previous day undergoing dialysis treatment for a kidney problem.

The ambulance response time has been described as “appalling” and “unacceptable” by those at the scene.

Trained first aider Chris Watson was in the area just after the accident had happened at 2.45pm on August 22. He dialled 999 and relayed Mrs May’s condition to the ambulance service.

He said: “The fact of her age, injuries and that she had been on dialysis in the hospital the day before should have surely made her a number one priority. The ambulance should have been straight down there. I was appalled by their response time.

“If she had had some internal bleeding that we didn’t know about the wait could have killed her.”

Mrs May, of Kingsteignton, was visiting Totnes with her friend Hayley Davies when she fell.

Son Paul Stevens of Dorset is “disgusted” his mother had to wait so long for an ambulance and is demanding answers.

He said: “It’s a very long wait for anyone, let alone an elderly, frail lady.

“I’m disgusted with the ambulance service and I want some answers. This was an old lady waiting two hours on the floor, in pain, shivering with the cold and with cuts to her head and fractured bones. She was in pieces.”

Chris and two taxi drivers waiting at the nearby taxi rank stayed with Mrs May until the ambulance finally arrived.

He said: “We couldn’t give her a cup of tea or any kind of liquid other than a sip of water, or any pain relief, because it could have caused complications further on.

“We tried to keep her as warm as possible. but she was on the cold ground and it leeches heat away from the body, but we didn’t want to move her because she was in severe pain.

“She had what I suspected, and turned out to be, several injuries to her kneecap, plus a goose-egg on her forehead.

“It was a seriously huge swelling about the size of the palm of my hand and a good inch or so proud of her forehead.

“There was the possibility of bleeding underneath the skin and of concussion.”

Chris said the fall had left Mrs May lying in a vulnerable position at the edge of the pavement parallel with the road.

A taxi driver parked his car adjacent to the injured pensioner to provide a screen between her and the busy main road, and stayed until the ambulance came.

He found a blanket for Mrs May while staff from Gill Goddard hair salon brought out pillows.

Chris managed to find the number for the ambulance dispatcher and phoned them direct.

He said: “I highlighted the situation with the lady’s medical conditions and suddenly an ambulance came, from Dartmouth, within 20 minutes.”

Mrs May was taken to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital where she was diagnosed with multiple knee fractures. She was released four days later and her injuries are so severe her whole leg will be encased in plaster for at least six weeks.

Totnes district councillor, John Birch, said: “Two hours is far too long for a badly injured elderly lady to wait, especially as she has a serious medical condition.

“In such circumstances, time must be of the essence and such a wait suffered by Mrs May is unacceptable.”

In a statement, South Western Ambulance Service said: “Unfortunately, we can’t reach all patients as quickly as people would like, due to high demand and limited resources.

“Our local ambulance crew arrived to treat this patient within the national response time of 120 minutes for a Category 3 call (non-life-threatening).

“All 999 calls are triaged, so we can determine the appropriate response, and ensure those patients who are in a time-critical life-threatening condition are reached first.

“We wouldn’t want any patient to experience an extended wait, and continue to work very hard to deliver a top quality response to all patients.”

As well lodging a formal complaint to the ambulance, Chris also complained about the broken black bollard to the county council.

“The post was pretty awry, more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa because cars coming out of Ticklemore Street clip it,” he said.

“She tripped over the base of it, which is actually some six to nine inches offset from it.”

Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council’s cabinet member for highways management, said: “I’m very sorry to hear that Mrs May was injured and I hope she makes a full and speedy recovery.

“In regards to the bollards, I suspect that it had been hit at some point by a vehicle and was dislodged.

“Our contractors have now fixed and realigned the bollards and checked the surrounding paving.

“I can confirm they have not found any serious defects with the paving.”