A woman who knows she could wake up each morning paralysed says her concerns are growing after planned surgery was cancelled six times.
Teresa Stuart was born with Klippel Feil syndrome, a congenital deformity of the neck, and has been booked in for an operation at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, Devon.
But she has now had half a dozen postponements and fears one day she will no longer be able to move, PlymouthLive report.
NHS Covid pressures has seen her surgery re-arranged time after time and Teresa described the situation as demoralising.
The 67-year-old, who lives with the condition which she has been told could one day paralyse her, says it has been two years since she was first told she will go under the knife.
A spokesperson for University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust said cancelling and rearranging any surgery is not a decision taken lightly.
But she said: "There's always a danger that I could get spinal compression, just from having this thing.
"I could just actually suddenly wake up one day and be paralysed because it's actually crushed my spinal cord because of the instability of my neck.
"There's always that ray of hope that this will be it but then at the last minute it's like 'yeah okay it's been cancelled again'.
"There's nothing you can do about it and you don't know how you're supposed to respond because I can't get angry with the hospital because it's not their fault.
"But it's not my fault either - it just gets very depressing it's really relentless.
"It's just so demoralising for patients and it's very bad for mental health people under stress constantly because they think you're going to have an operation and get all anxious about it and then have it cancelled.
"It's been an emotional rollercoaster. I just feel powerless - I'll be dead before I get this operation."
She added: "I understand the difficulties with Covid, funding and staffing. It's been a difficult two years, but there must be a better way of doing this."
A University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust statement read: “We sympathise with patients currently on waiting lists for operations and understand how this can be a distressing experience.
"Cancelling and rearranging any surgery is a decision that is not taken lightly and, whilst we do not comment on individual patient cases, we understand that this will cause worry for the patient in question.
“With Covid-related admissions remaining high, health and care services in Devon and Cornwall remain under continued pressure and are taking additional steps to protect patients from infection.
"This has inevitably had an impact on planned routine and urgent surgery at our main hospitals. With partners, we are continuing to prioritise critical surgery for people with cancer, life and limb saving need, cardiology, and sight-saving procedures.
“We are hoping to increase surgery and appointments as soon as we can, and will keep patients updated. For some patients this may mean that surgery may be delivered in different places to where they may have had them before.”
