A 75-year-old man was left fighting for his life after vanishing from an NHS hospital so overwhelmed by patient numbers that its Costa Coffee outlet had been converted into a makeshift ward.
A Terrifying 44-Hour Ordeal
The incident occurred at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, in January 2026. Nick Sheppard, 75, had been taken to the hospital after collapsing and hitting his head in a Co-op in Dover. After initial treatment for his head injury, he was placed on a trolley in a packed A&E corridor, where he waited with his partner of over 50 years, Janet Pott, 73, for heart tests.
Janet stayed overnight on the trolley mattress. The following evening, around 10pm, she briefly fell asleep. When she woke, Nick was gone. "I just said, 'Where's Nick gone?' And nobody knew. Nobody," she recalled. It was the same day the hospital had been forced to turn its Costa Coffee shop into a temporary ward due to a critical bed shortage.
Desperate Search and Discovery
Police launched a major search. It later emerged that Nick, likely confused from his concussion, had walked out through a rear gate. For 44 hours, Janet feared the worst. "With every hour that passed, I believed more and more that he was going to be found dead," she said.
Nick was eventually discovered in woodland behind the hospital, lying in a ditch he had tried and failed to climb out of. He was suffering from severe hypothermia and dehydration. "I just said to her, 'Is he still alive?' and she said: 'He is, Jan, but he's really, really bad,'" Janet said of the police call.
Lasting Consequences and Systemic Failure
Nick spent 19 days in intensive care and suffered kidney failure, internal bleeding, and extreme weight loss. He has no memory of the event. While grateful for the life-saving care he later received, he and Janet are devastated by the preventable ordeal.
"I know they saved my life, but they shouldn't have had to," Nick said. Janet blamed dangerous overcrowding and 'corridor care' for the lapse. "A vulnerable patient with a head injury should not be able to walk out unnoticed. It was like a warzone," she stated, adding that the experience had shattered her faith in the NHS.
The crisis is reflected in official figures. 2025 was the worst year on record in Kent for 12-hour trolley waits, with over 28,000 cases. The East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust has apologised and confirmed the incident is under review.
