AN ELDERLY man was found close to death in a ditch almost two days after disappearing from a crowded hospital where beds were so short a coffee shop was being used as a ward.
Nick Sheppard, 75, was being treated for injuries from a nasty fall in the corridor of William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, when he vanished.
As the wards were so jammed Nick was put on a trolley in busy corridorCredit: Cover Images
A missing person appeal was circulated in an attempt to locate NickCredit: Cover Images
On Monday, September 15 last year the retired maintenance man collapsed in his local and smashed his head on the floor, leaving him with a concussion laying in a “pool of blood”.
Janet Pott, 73, his partner of over 50 years said it was the “worst 44 hours of my life”.
“With every hour that passed, I believed more and more that he was going to be found dead” she added.
As the wards were so jammed Nick was put on a after receiving staples to the back of his head to treat a serious wound.
He spent a sleepless night with Janet by his side while they waited for .
At 10pm the next day, 33 hours since being admitted to hospital Janet finally managed to fall asleep, in a chair with her head on Nick’s trolley mattress.
When she woke up a few hours later Nick was no longer in the bed.
Janet claims staff did not immediately check CCTV but were called and specialist search and rescue teams were pulled together.
It was later discovered that Nick exited the building through a back gate at 10.06pm.
A appeal was circulated in an attempt to locate Nick, who Janet believes wouldn’t have gone missing if he was on a proper ward.
The search continued for 44 hours with emergency services and family members searching barns and outhouses in the area, believing Nick would probably have been trying to seek warmth.
“The longer it went on, the worse it got” Janet said.
“I kept crying. I thought, if they find him dead, he died because I went to sleep” she added.
At around 6pm on Thursday 18 September Nick was finally found by police, only just still alive.
Helicopters scouring the area detected his minimal body heat in a ditch in a patch of woods behind the hospital.
It is understood he had fallen into the ditch after disappearing in a state of concussion and struggled to find his way out.
He was found in a bad condition, suffering from hypothermia, severely dehydrated and covered in scratches.
When Janet received the call letting her know her partner had been found she asked if he was still alive the officer responded: “He is, Jan, but he’s really, really bad”.
Janet told the Daily Mail: “I can’t tell you the state he was in. It was dreadful to see.
“He was so filthy. His feet and legs were cut to bits and his clothes were ruined” she added.
Nick spent the following 19 days in intensive care where he continued to suffer from serious health issues.
Before eventually being moved to a ward, where he spent a further five weeks he contracted kidney failure and a bleed on his bowel that required several blood transfusions.
Although the couple are back home in Dover Janet says Nick is “not how he was before”.
Nick, who now struggles to walk and requires a catheter said: “I know they saved my life, but they shouldn’t have had to.
“It makes me so upset, how I am now. I used to be fit – now I walk like a hundred-year-old.”
Janet believes that the extreme pressures on emergency care at the William Harvey hospital are to blame for Nick’s life changing escapade.
“A vulnerable patient with a head injury should not be able to walk out unnoticed.
“If he was in a cubicle, or on a ward, this wouldn’t have happened, but instead we were crammed into a narrow corridor for hours on end.
“They just kept bringing more and more people in, to the point I said to a man in a lanyard, ‘Are you not going to declare an emergency and close the doors?” Janet said.
On the day that Nick disappeared the Kent hospital was forced to turn its , providing “corridor care”.
Corridor care is the term used to describe treatment provided to patients stranded on trolleys in hospital walkways and other areas, usually while waiting for a bed on a ward.
NHS figures reveal 2025 was the worst year on record in Kent for ‘trolley waits’ – meaning a delay of 12 hours or more from when a patient is admitted to when they are given a bed.
An eyewatering 28,151 cases of corridor care were recorded last year in Kent, compared to just 134 across the whole of 2019
The East Kent Hospitals Trust have apologised to Nick and said the incident is still being reviewed.
A spokesperson said: “We have been working with them to further investigate what happened and how lessons can be learned.”
This comes just days after the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, also run by the trust declared a “critical incident” amid its struggles to cope with a spike in respiratory illnesses and norovirus.
The Sun has approached the East Kent Hospital Trust for comment.
It is understood he had fallen into the ditch after disappearing in a state of concussionCredit: Cover Images
The retired maintenance man collapsed in his local Co-op and smashed his head on the floorCredit: Cover Images
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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