A woman who was left with head injuries after being violently attacked outside her West Croydon home, discharged herself from A&E in horror when staff told her to wait nine hours for treatment.

The 53-year-old woman, who remains anonymous, had been mugged on her doorstep in the early hours of Sunday, July 7, and was taken by ambulance to Mayday Hospital.

Police described how her attacker had run into her at speed as she began unlocking her front door, pulled her to the floor and smashed her head on the pavement before running off with her handbag containing little more than a mobile phone.

The hospital confirmed 10 serious head injuries, four serious cardiac conditions and victims of a major road accident were higher on their list of priorities. The woman told the Croydon Guardian how her head streamed with blood despite being bandaged by paramedics, and how frustrated she felt when after an hour in A&E fearful she had a fractured skull, a nurse told her to wait eight more.

She said: "My head was swelling up like a balloon, my face covered in blood, my eye rapidly swelling up and my head pounding I felt terrible.

"I just thought, what good is sitting here on a hard chair not being able to go to sleep when I could be more comfortable at home?"

The nurse tried to persuade her to stay, even telling her she may not wake in the morning, she said.

She added: "I know how busy hospitals are but all I needed was someone to look at me or give me a painkiller."

After discharging herself police took her to a friend's house.

Mayday's deputy chief executive Frank McGurrin, said he was certain the woman, who may have needed a stitch, would not have been made to wait had her injuries been serious, adding that the wait was probably overestimated.

"She was assessed for levels of consciousness and orientation before her level of priority was decided," he said.

"It must have been a dreadful experience," added Mr McGurrin. We should have taken more time to explain the situation properly."

An X-ray has since eliminated a fracture.

Jo Parkes - jparkes@london.newsquest.co.uk

July 11, 2002 13:30