A PARALYSED pensioner has told how he was left suicidal after being left lying in his own filth and without food and drink for almost 60 hours.

Steven King claims he was told by care agency Agincare the firm had to stop his care as it did not have enough workers in the area.

The 66-year-old was then left completely on his own, with just a sandwich and two glasses of drink for two and a half days until NHS out-of-hours provider Medvivo arrived at his house.

The former retail worker could not physically get out of bed to go to the toilet so had to lie in his own mess for the whole time, which he described as ‘harrowing’.

Mr King, who lives in Chippenham, said: “Honestly, I felt suicidal for all of that time.

“I had no-one to support me, and I completely lost interest in life. I genuinely thought this would be the end of me.

“I wasn’t given an emergency number, but was told to call 999 if I needed a drink, but I felt really uncomfortable having to do that, I didn’t want to waste the ambulance service’s time.

“Throughout the whole time, I had no clue what was going on and when my next meal would come through, the council just said they couldn’t find arrangements for my care.

“I managed to ring up Medvivo and they came out very quickly.

“Why is it that a 66-year-old with mental health issues can get care and the council can’t do anything about it?

“The council just played mind games with me, nothing was ever told to me straight.”

Mr King suffers from diagnosed complex post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression, hypertension, anxiety, IBS, osteoarthritis in his hands. He has too much calcium in his kneecaps, meaning he can’t straighten his legs to walk.

Mr King has no family who can look after him, has very few friends, and admits he is ‘very lonely’.

This latest council mishap is one in a chain of events that have resulted in Mr King reporting abuse and feeling his care is not up to standard.

The 66-year-old says he has not had a cooked meal in more than six months, as carers have frequently told him they do not have time to cook them.

In May this year, a carer from the Wiltshire Reablement Team turned on the deep fat fryer in his kitchen, put the thermostat on full and left it on for longer than eight hours.

The following month, carers flooded his bathroom after emptying chamberpots and over-flushing the toilet. Mr King says carers then left without sorting out the flood, leaving damage which has permanently stained the carpet.

A council spokesperson said: “As soon as we were notified that Mr King wasn’t receiving care, we began looking for another provider immediately, but securing one unfortunately took longer than anticipated.

“We apologise for any distress this may have caused but we had very little notice about the issue with this care package and tried to find a solution as quickly as possible. This was an isolated incident and we will look at ways to avoid something like this from happening again.”