A WOMAN who accidentally cut an artery was rushed to hospital by her mother after an ambulance failed to show up for an hour.

Despite the ambulance service logging the 999 call as serious, Amy Blackwell, 23, got her mum Beverley, 45, to take her to hospital after paramedics failed to turn up. She had struggled to stop blood spurting from her wound after pulling a piece of glass out of her hand following an accident.

Amy injured herself as she emptied the dishwasher and broke a glass at home in Benfleet Park Road, Benfleet. Her panicked brother Glenn, 18, called for an ambulance at 5.45pm on Friday while Amy, who was desperately trying to stem the bleeding, called her mum Beverley, a district nurse who was on call in Rochford.

Beverley raced back home in 30 minutes and with no sign of an ambulance decided to bundle her daughter into her car and take her to Southend Hospital.

Once there Amy was given emergency treatment for a nicked artery and was later transferred to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford for an operation on two severed tendons.

The ambulance finally arrived at the family home at 6.45pm with its sirens blaring.

Amy, a nursery nurse, said: “I know first aid so I should have known better than to pull the glass out. As soon as I did blood started to spurt everywhere.

“I was pretty worried.”

A spokesman for the East of England Amubulance Service admitted the ambulance should have arrived in 30 minutes.