A PAIR of good Samaritans who rushed to the aid of an elderly man who became ill on a bus were left stranded when – having walked the gentleman to his flat – they returned to find the driver had driven off.
Worse still, some of their possessions were still on board.
Kelly Prosser, 36, who works for Santander consumer finance, and Ana Da Silver, 26, were on the 430 Metrobus service between Merstham, Redhill and Reigate on Wednesday last week when Mrs Prosser noticed the man was clutching his chest and appeared to be having difficulty breathing.
She called for the driver to stop so she could help the man and was aided by Mrs Da Silver, who had just finished a 15-hour shift at East Surrey Hospital.
They helped the man to his feet and, discovering he lived near the next stop, asked the driver to go round the corner so they could get him home.
But after taking him to his door and waiting for an ambulance, they were staggered to find the driver had abandoned them, with Mrs Da Silver's bag – including her money and phone – still on board.
"We couldn't believe it," said Mrs Prosser, who had taken her bag with her and called home for help.
"We were at this man's house for 10 minutes. When we called the ambulance they came straight away. The driver assured us he'd wait. The last thing I asked him was 'you won't leave will you?' and he said 'no'."
Stranded miles from home in the growing dark at around 8.20pm, the pair contacted the main bus depot in Crawley to see if they could be picked up. They were told they would have to wait an hour for the next bus.
Miss Da Silver added: "The bus driver was going to let this guy walk home on his own.
"I said 'can you wait for five minutes because I'm going to take him home?
"I thought we had a duty to at least do that.
"I was left with no bag, no phone, no money or anything. I was lucky that Kelly was there and let me use her phone.
"All I could think was 'how are we going to get home?'
"I was still four or five stops away and Kelly was even further away than that.
"I couldn't walk home in the dark; I was really tired after working 15 hours."
Eventually Mrs Prosser's husband collected the pair and ensured both women they got home safely.
Charlotte Bruce, marketing manager at Metrobus, said: "The bus waited for 14 minutes with no further contact and, with other passengers waiting on board the bus, plus passengers further along the route waiting, the decision was reluctantly taken to continue the service."
