A Dublin teenager who broke his leg was left on the ground in the rain for two hours waiting on an ambulance last night.
The teen's mum, Margaret, was told her son was 48th in the queue for an ambulance when she called for urgent assistance.
She eventually had to call a taxi to get her son to Temple Street Children's Hospital, and had to ask a family friend to help him into the car.
After arriving outside the hospital, a security guard helped to lift her son out of the taxi.
Speaking to RTE Liveline, Margaret said: "I asked the ambulance service last night, is there anything else I can do? I was nearly crying on the phone.
"I jumped out of the taxi and ran in. He ran and got a wheelchair.
"When we got in, they took him off me straight away, did the x-rays and all. He's on morphine today.
"I'm just so worried for other people. We're in a pandemic and there's twelve ambulances in Dublin. It's scary to think."
And Margaret wasn't the only distressed mother in the A&E that couldn't get an ambulance sent out to her.
"Another lady in there had to bring her child in choking because she couldn't get an ambulance," she added.
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