A critically-ill man was made to wait 13 hours for an ambulance after suffering a brain haemorrhage.

Building site manager David Axford, 48, of Long Road, Canvey, began suffering an excruciating headache at his home on December 30.

After telling the call handler his symptoms, Mr Axford was told a paramedic was being dispatched. After more frantic 999 calls during the wait, an ambulance eventually turned up 13 hours after the initial call.

Speaking with the Echo, his wife Kim said: “He thought he was going to die. While we were waiting for the paramedics, he said he just wanted to go to bed and cancel the ambulance.

“If I had let him, it could have been a very different story.”

Kim initially called 111 when David said his headache was like nothing he had experienced before.

She said: “I described the symptoms to them and they said an ambulance would be sent. A few hours went by and he got a lot worse. He said he felt like an elastic band pinged in his head.

“I rang the ambulance service to ask how long but they couldn’t give me a time. A few more hours went by and his eye was drooping, he had a nose bleed and started to lose feeling in his legs.

“It was another five hours when it turned up at about 3.30am the following morning.

“It was an agonising wait. You just keep thinking it’s going to arrive.”

The East of England Ambulance Service said it was “under severe pressure and always tries to prioritise the most life-threatening calls”.

The service spokesman added the trust received 4,159 calls on that day and almost 1,300 were in Essex.

“The case is still under review and, as such, cannot be discussed until further information can be gained,” he said. “Our priority is with the patient and his family and any such conversations will be with them.”

After he arrived at Southend Hospital Mr Axford was taken for a scan which found he had suffered a bleed to the brain before he was moved to Queens Hospital in Romford in a critical condition.

He was discharged on January 10 but is still undergoing treatment.

Mrs Axford added: “Dave has come out the other side but we don’t want anyone to go through what we have. We really did feel let down and it has really affected Dave.

“The paramedics were brilliant once they arrived but we think this shows that the system is broken and something needs to be done. The next time someone might not be so lucky.”

NHS England says an “action plan” for the service was agreed at a “risk summit” held last Wednesday.