My mum nearly died after eco fanatics blocked motorway – but she was saved by heroic ambulance driver, says Katie Price
KATIE Price’s dying mum’s lung transplant faced the axe when Just Stop Oil activists blocked a motorway, the ex-glamour model revealed.
An ambulance racing Amy, 71, to hospital where a donor organ was waiting was held up by protests on the M25.
But its savvy crew used the hard shoulder to dodge the eco zealots and get gravely ill Amy to the surgeons at Harefield in Uxbridge, West London, while the lung was still viable.
Amy, who was suffering idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — a chronic disease — spent three months in hospital recovering from her ordeal last November.
Katie, 45, said: “Mum had two weeks left to live at the time.
“She found a donor. She was waiting five years for a lung.
READ MORE ON KATIE PRICE
“It was the day all the oil protesters were on the M25 and you have three hours to get to hospital otherwise you can’t have the donor [organ].
“So they had to get an ambulance. When they were on the motorway, they didn’t realise.”
Katie added on the Private Parts podcast, hosted by Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing: “They had to go up the hard shoulder, and get an ambulance to get through it, because if you’re not there you lose it [the lung].”
Amy, meanwhile, nominated the medics who saved her life for a Sun Who Cares Wins award.
Most read in Celebrity
She said: “The doctors and surgeons who did my transplant are amazing but it is the friendly faces you see at every appointment that mean the world.
Katie couldn’t be here 24/7, so knowing I had a family here made everyone less worried about me.”
A Just Stop Oil spokeswoman said: "Good news for Katie’s mother and her family and friends that the lung transplant went ahead. We wish them well.
The closure of the M25 motorway in places last November was a decision by the police. Just Stop Oil supporters had climbed up gantries above the motorway and did not block any lanes. Our policy is, and has always been, to move out of the way for emergency vehicles with siren sounding and ‘blue lights’ on.
It's also worth noting that ambulance drivers are trained to use the hard shoulder in emergencies when encountering traffic queues - it's what the hard shoulder is designed for."