A 75-year-old man was discovered barely alive in a ditch after vanishing from an overcrowded hospital where a Costa Coffee had been converted into a ward due to severe bed shortages.
A Terrifying 44-Hour Ordeal
Nick Sheppard, 75, was being treated for concussion and head wounds on a trolley in a corridor of William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, when he disappeared. His partner of more than 50 years, Janet Pott, 73, described it as the 'worst 44 hours of my life' and blames the hospital's fraught situation for the incident.
The ordeal began on Monday, September 15, when Nick collapsed at his local Co-op in Dover, smashing his head and leaving him in a pool of blood. After being taken to A&E and having staples applied to a serious head wound, full wards meant he was placed on a trolley in a busy corridor. He spent a sleepless night there with Janet in a chair beside him.
Around 10pm the following day, 33 hours after arrival, Janet dozed off. When she awoke, Nick was gone. CCTV later showed he had left the building via a back gate at 10.06pm. A major police search was launched.
Found in a Ditch Behind the Hospital
Nick was eventually found by police just after 6pm on the Thursday, some 44 hours after he vanished. He was discovered in a ditch in woods behind the hospital, with helicopters detecting his faint body heat. He had fallen in and been unable to climb out.
He was suffering from hypothermia and severe dehydration, covered in scratches. Janet recalled the police call: 'I just said to her, 'Is he still alive? She said, 'He is, Jan, but he's really, really bad.''
Nick spent the next 19 days in intensive care, heavily sedated, and suffered complications including kidney failure and a bowel bleed requiring multiple blood transfusions. He then spent a further five weeks on a ward. He has no memory of events from the Co-op fall until leaving intensive care three weeks later.
A System Under Extreme Pressure
The couple are now home in Dover, but Nick, who lost four stone, struggles to walk and needs a catheter. Janet is adamant the incident was caused by systemic failures. 'A vulnerable patient with a head injury should not be able to walk out unnoticed,' she said. 'If he was in a cubicle, or on a ward, this wouldn't have happened.'
She described the scene as like a 'warzone', with patients crammed into narrow corridors for hours. On the very day Nick disappeared, the hospital's café had been turned into a makeshift ward.
Latest NHS figures reveal 2025 was the worst year on record in Kent for 'trolley waits' of 12 hours or more, with 28,151 cases compared to just 134 in 2019. East Kent Hospitals Trust, which runs William Harvey, accounted for over half of Kent's figures.
The trust has apologised and said the incident is under review. A spokesperson stated: 'We have been working with them to further investigate what happened and how lessons can be learned.'
