A stroke victim died after waiting hours for an ambulance to take her to hospital where staff were forced to send her test results to Australia because they had no specialists on duty.
The death of Margaret Morgan, 77, from Monmouth, Wales, left her partner of 17 years, Michael Evans traumatised and her children seeking answers.
The Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, which runs The Grange Hospital where Ms Morgan passed away, admitted that "on occasions when clinicians are unavailable, patients' scans may be outsourced to specialist consultants".
Speaking to The Telegraph, Ms Morgan's daughter, Julia Parry, 57, said her mother, a retired GP's receptionist, was "fit, healthy and active" before the stroke on July 22.
She said: "Michael and mum were laughing and joking in the kitchen when all of a sudden she started talking gobbledygook and fainted.
"Michael called the ambulance service and was initially told it would be a four to six hour wait."
Former prison guard Mr Evans, 73, then rang his daughter, who lives forty miles away, for help, and when she arrived they again called for an ambulance, stressing the severity of the situation. Ms Morgan was unconscious throughout.
Eventually, after an hour, first responders attended and then an hour later, the ambulance arrived.
Further delays then ensued as it emerged the paramedic who was driving was unable to drive under blue light conditions.
Mrs Parry said: "They had to drive into Newport to stop somewhere to pick up a blue light driver.
"They then had to make their way through the rush hour traffic to the hospital."
Once they arrived at the hospital, around three and a quarter hours after their first 999 call, the family were greeted with one further problem.
Mrs Parry, who was waiting at the hospital when the ambulance arrived, continued: "They did a barrage of tests on mum and put her on life support. They said there weren't any specialist doctors on call that evening so what they were having to do was email the tests over to someone in Australia.
"We were a bit taken aback by that to be honest and just thought, 'flipping heck'. They did come back quite quickly despite the fact they were sent to the other side of the world."
Mrs Parry says the family were then told Ms Morgan had suffered a catastrophic stroke and it was agreed that she should be taken off life support.
Mrs Parry added: "Personally, I don't think mum would have lived even if she hadn't suffered these delays.
"I think she'd had a massive stroke and that was it. But perhaps that's just what I want to think.
"And besides, it might not be the same situation if someone else suffered similar delays.
"The worst part for my mum's partner was the ambulance delays. That was absolutely horrific. He didn't know what to do and he is really traumatised by it. He has packed all his stuff up and wants to move out. He can't go in the kitchen where it happened."
Liam Williams, the executive director of quality and nursing at the Welsh Ambulance Service, extended his condolences to the family.
He said: "The Welsh Ambulance Service has experienced a growth in the number of life-threatening red calls, as well as significant and long-standing hospital handover delays which have prevented us releasing resources to respond as quickly as we would want."
A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: "Our thoughts are with Ms Morgan's family at this very difficult time.
"On occasions when our own specialist clinicians are unavailable, patients' scans that require expert analysis may be outsourced to specialist consultants external to the Health Board.
"This arrangement ensures that patient's scans are reported on within the required clinical timeframes.
"Reports carried out by the all-Wales outsourcing partner are usually returned within two hours of sending."
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