A woman has recounted her son’s harrowing experience in the emergency unit after he was made to sit for more than 13 hours without antibiotics despite gangrene appearing in his foot.

Karen Willis spoke of the utter chaos she observed in the emergency department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton as she stayed with her son Steven.

The 41-year-old lost his footing during heavy rain on February 26 and suffered severe damage to his foot.

He was admitted to the emergency department at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath and promptly transferred to the Brighton trauma centre where he underwent surgery. His mother said he was never given antibiotics.

He was discharged on March 7 and instructed to attend the fracture clinic the following Tuesday (March 10).

During a 2pm appointment at the clinic, medical staff found that Steven’s wound had developed gangrene and informed him he would need to wait in the emergency department for assessment.

Karen said that Steven remained seated from 6pm until 7am the following day.

He asked if they could at least give him antibiotics, but they declined. He spent the whole night sitting upright in a chair with nowhere to rest his foot, given that his foot was swollen and infected and his toe had turned black, she said.

At 7am they found a trolley for him, and he was placed directly next to the ambulance entrance, meaning every time the doors opened his trolley was pushed.

He had no pillows, sheets or blankets, and no food or drink was provided from 6pm until 7am the following morning.

I have never seen anything like this in my life; it was dreadful. There were patients having arguments and patients arranged on trolleys with men and women placed alongside each other without any privacy or dignity.

On Wednesday at 11am, Steven, who is from Horley, was moved to an orthopaedic ward.

He had an operation during which his toe was removed, part of the side of his foot was taken out, and a large skin graft was carried out using tissue from his thigh.

It is a life-changing experience that could have been avoided, Karen said.

I do not want anyone else to suffer this treatment, for elderly people to lie there without refreshments, food, or dignity.

She went on: The emergency department was clearly under severe strain.

It is swamped. There was no time for anything or anyone.

Are people aware this is happening? Do they understand how bad the situation is? How many others are going through this?

She said that doctors have now established that Steven has E. coli in his wound and will need to attend the hospital weekly for six weeks for dressing changes and blood tests while completing a course of antibiotics.

A spokesperson for University Hospitals Sussex said: We were extremely sorry to learn about Steven’s experience at the Royal Sussex County Hospital. We are making every effort to thoroughly investigate their concerns and have arranged to meet with the family so we can hear directly from them, provide the answers they deserve, and guarantee that any essential improvements are implemented.