Australia's health system is under the spotlight as more reports emerge of a crisis in ambulance ramping leading to major delays.
Ramping is when ambulances wait at the hospital to admit their patients.
It ties up the crew, who cannot report to other incidents while they wait.
One Victorian woman's leg was amputated above the knee two weeks ago after a four-hour wait for an ambulance, 9News reports.
Marianne Maher was experiencing "excruciating" pain in her leg and made five calls to triple zero before the ambulance finally arrived. When she reached Ballarat Base Hospital, doctors discovered a blood clot and cut off the leg.
The family lives just a 20-minute drive from the hospital, 9News reports.
"I rang in excruciating pain saying, 'Where are you?" Why are you not coming? I need help... There's something wrong with my leg'."
Maher is left wondering if things could've been different: "More ambulances on the road, do something about that."
She's not alone. In recent weeks, Queensland grandfather Wayne Irving died after allegedly waiting hours in an ambulance for a hospital bed, and Brisbane mum Cath Groom died after waiting for more than an hour and a half for an ambulance that never arrived.
It was the night of Groom's 52nd birthday.
Fiona Scalon, Australia's National Ambulance coordinator for United Workers Union, said the system isn't coping with the demand.
"Not only are [paramedics] not getting a break, but their shifts are often extended well into overtime," she said.
"It's pretty constant for the ambulance service now to lose between four and 500 hours a day of their resources tied up at hospital ramps waiting to transfer the care of patients.
"That's 50 odd paramedics that should be in the community."
Emergency services respond
Ambulance Victoria apologised for the time it took to reach Maher.
"We can confirm a review is underway to better understand the circumstances," a spokesperson said.
"We've reached out to the family and continued our conversations with them this week, and are committed to providing them with further information as we progress with this review."
Gold Coast Health said: "All patients are off loaded and under the care of doctors and emergency nurses within the hospital. No patients wait in the back of an ambulance."
However, the public health provider acknowledged average ambulance handover times in the range of 25 to 45 minutes.
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