A MUM suffering from a rare illness was forced to lie on a cold A&E floor for 12 hours while hospital staff struggled to cope with a “code black” emergency.

Abigail Cooper was rushed to Broomfield Hospital, in Chelmsford, at midnight in excruciating pain because of her chronic gastroparesis.

The 19-year-old said: “I was treated awfully. They wouldn’t have treated their own family like that.

“They literally left me screaming in agony and having panic attacks.”

Miss Cooper, of Derwent Way, Great Notley, has had the condition – which causes the stomach to stop emptying its contents into the small bowel, resulting in painful bloating and nausea – for four years.

The stepmother to three young children usually receives food, liquid and medication through a nasal tube which connects through her stomach to her intestine.

However, this had come loose the previous week and had to be removed, resulting in frequent bouts of pain.

On Tuesday night it became so bad, her mum rushed her to hospital.

She said: “It was really, really busy. There were ambulances backed up everywhere. They were on a code black, which means the hospital is overflowing.

“Everyone was under pressure. People were running around everywhere.”

However, Miss Cooper, who suffers from depression and anxiety and was clearly distressed, said this was no excuse for the “rude” treatment she received from medics.

Miss Cooper was seated in a communal waiting room, but told nurses she needed to lie down because her hypermobility was causing pain in her hip.

When she was told there were no beds she lay on the floor – and she was left there for five hours.

Maldon and Burnham Standard:

She was eventually moved to a different room and given pain relief, but still denied a bed.

Miss Cooper – who had bought her own pillow from home – said she was simply given a thin blanket to cover herself with until noon last Wednesday, when she was finally given a bed.

She was discharged later that day.

Broomfield Hospital declined to comment.