WITH sickening dread, she spotted the ambulance in the middle of the road as she rushed to hospital, minutes after hearing her husband had been hurt in an accident.
Her worst fears were confirmed as she pulled over to the side of Anlaby Road.
It was her husband inside, seriously injured after deliberately riding his bike into the path of oncoming traffic.
Only hours earlier, the couple had left Hull Royal Infirmary in despair after being told there were no mental health beds available in the city or the East Riding to help him.
Now, the woman, who works in the health service, is calling for improvements to Hull's mental health services so people can get the help they need.
She said: "If no one makes a stand, nothing will ever change. We put all this money into stopping smoking, alcohol and healthy eating, but what is there for mental health?
"When you actually get to access mental health services, what they do is fantastic, but there just isn't enough help for everyone.
"We need a better service and something like a halfway house where people can go before they get to the critical stage and need to be admitted."
The woman came forward after the Mail revealed a 22-year-old girl killed herself after she was sent home from Miranda House in Hull, which provides emergency mental health assessment.
She has asked not to be named to protect her husband, in his forties, who has suffered depression on and off for the past ten years and has been admitted into psychiatric care twice.
His wife said: "He used to be really confident and happy-go-lucky. But he was made redundant and he was struggling to find work and the problems came after that."
His condition deteriorated recently and he went to A&E at Hull Royal Infirmary, complaining of chest pains believed to have been brought on by a serious anxiety attack.
He was asked to go to his GP the next day and was given anti-depressants.
The couple returned to A&E the next day when the man was overcome by thoughts of suicide. His wife later discovered he had gone up to their loft and was considering taking his own life before they set off for the hospital.
At Hull Royal, the man became extremely distressed and was admitted to the acute assessment unit (AAU).
"He didn't feel safe and he felt people were threatening him," his wife, 53, said. "When I saw him, he was in a side room and the mental health team were with him, but they said there were no beds available and the nearest one was in Newcastle.
"We felt like we had absolutely no option at all. I didn't feel Hull Royal Infirmary was the right place for a mental health patient and certainly not AAU, so we went home because the staff at Humber Foundation Trust had absolutely nothing to offer us."
The man was discharged at 6pm, but left his home in west Hull at 9pm, his wife unable to stop him. Within an hour, police had called her to say he had been in an accident.
His wife said: "It was only later that I found out my husband had hit the car so hard, his bike had snapped in two."
Her husband suffered a punctured lung and cuts and bruises and was treated at Hull Royal Infirmary before he was transferred to the mental health unit in the grounds of Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham.
He was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and spent four weeks at the unit before he was well enough to go home.
The driver of the car was not injured in the crash and has decided not to press charges in connection with the accident on July 15.
Trust investigating caseA SPOKESMAN for Humber Foundation NHS Trust said they were investigating the circumstances surrounding the man's case.
She said the demand for beds was rising in Hull and the East Yorkshire but no one had been admitted to hospitals outside the city except for specialist treatment not provided in Hull.
She said: "It is extremely important that people in mental health crisis are not put off asking for help and we would like people to be reassured that if an adult patient has needed a mental health bed, then a bed has been found locally. Additionally, if you find yourself in crisis, help is there, 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
Anyone experiencing a mental health emergency in Hull should call 01482 335790. People in the East Riding should call 01482 344564.
A spokesman for Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary, confirmed they had received a complaint from the woman regarding her husband's care in AAU.
He said: "By the nature of their work, our emergency department and acute assessment unit are very busy places, and the staff working in those departments will always aim to provide the best possible care they can, albeit sometimes under difficult circumstances."
