Tom Edwards broke his leg while playing for his team, Askern Miners FC, in Doncaster
A 13-year-old boy was made to wait hours for an ambulance to arrive after he broke his leg playing football.
On October 19, 13-year-old Tom Edwards was playing an away game in New Rossington, for his football team, Askern Miners FC. It was a wet and windy day, and his foot became caught in the ground.
He fell over, and, after crying out for help, the coach rushed over, only to see the bone at the top of his shin had snapped. Tom’s dad, Benjamin, said: “Once I saw his coach fall to his knees and put his hands on his head and start crying, then I knew something serious had happened.
“That’s when everybody rushed over, we thought it was his back or his neck at first, until we actually saw his leg and the bone. You could just see it.”
Tragically, Tom’s ordeal was not yet over, the club had a first aid kit on hand, but there was no emergency shelter available. An ambulance was called, and Tom had to wait with his injury in the poor weather for multiple hours.
Supporters from both clubs helped, but there was little they could do until help arrived. Benjamin stayed with him, holding his hand in the freezing weather, and he said: “There were just nothing to protect him whatsoever, or give him any privacy from the seven or eight games around him what were still going on.”
He added: “He doesn’t cry. So he didn’t cry at all through the whole process because he had people watching him, and that’s what he said when he got back, because the minute the ambulance got there, he was absolutely roaring his eyes out.
“He’s still a 13-year-old boy, but he didn’t want to cry because he knew he had hundreds of people watching him, there were no protection from that.”
Tom now faces seven months away from football, and, as the leading goal scorer for the Junior Premier League in Doncaster for the past two years, he’s taken this hard. He has been able to return to his team, who set up somewhere for him to sit and watch him play.
However, Benjamin has now decided to launch a campaign to make sure emergency shelters are available at every junior football club in the Doncaster area, as well as the Selby area where the team also plays. He has set up a fundraiser to help pay for this.
He said: “It’d have kept him warmer, by the time the ambulance got there, his skin was blue. Freezing cold, shivering, couldn’t feel anything, there was nothing we could physically do.
“If the shelter was there, one it would have kept the rain off of him so it couldn’t make his body any colder, it’d have kept the wind from him and it’d have given us as a family, more privacy.”
Benjamin said he didn’t want any other family to ever go through something similar.
So far, the campaign has raised £200, which is enough to provide three shelters. He is hoping to raise £6,000, which would be enough to buy more than 100.
If you want to help Benjamin in his campaign, you can do so here.
A spokesperson for Yorkshire Ambulance Service said: “We received an emergency call at 10.24am on 19 October to report a teenage boy injured in a football match at New Rossington, Doncaster. At the time, we were experiencing significant demand and an ambulance reached the patient at 12.02pm.
“We are very sorry that we were unable to respond to the patient more quickly and hope that he is recovering well from his injury.
“Our Patient Relations Team would be happy to look into this further if the family would like them to.”
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