A Redbrook family have expressed their disgust after a heart attack victim had to wait one and a half hours before an ambulance arrived.

Mrs Yvonne Dow rang the NHS Direct at 6pm on Sunday when her husband Thomas complained of chest pains.

"I described his symptoms - pain down his left arm and in his jaw - all the classic symptoms of a heart attack - and they said they would send an ambulance and asked if I would look out for it.

"I called my son Andrew to come home and he was waiting at the bottom of the steps to give the ambulance directions," said Mrs Dow.

But half an hour later NHS Direct rang back to say there was no ambulance available at the present time but that as soon as one became available they would send it out.

"When I asked how long it would take, they couldn't tell me," said Mrs Dow. "They said to ring 999 if his condition got any worse.

"Obviously he was getting very agitated because of the waiting - we were all getting very worried.

"I was reluctant to take him in my car because we have 20 steps to get down."

Mrs Dow rang 999 again and told them her husband's condition was getting worse - but she was again told response there was still no ambulance available.

Increasingly concerned, she rang again 10 minutes later only to get the same response.

By this time Mr Dow was becoming so agitated that Mrs Dow and her son decided to try to get him down the steps and into the car.

As they were nearing Wyesham they passed the ambulance coming the other way.

"So we turned around and followed the ambulance; we caught it up and flagged it down," Mrs Dow said.

After being checked by paramedics, Mr Dow was admitted to the coronary unit at Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny, where he was found to have suffered a mild heart attack.

While full of praise for the hospital and ambulance staff, Mrs Dow said she was disgusted by the length of time that they had to wait before an ambulance arrived.

"The hospital staff, staff were absolutely marvellous - I can't fault them, nor the ambulance staff and technicians - it wasn't their fault we had to wait for so long.

"I wouldn't want anyone else to go through what we've been through - you get fed up when they say things are getting better when they're obviously not."