Malcolm Conlan was aware of the hernia, but believes it was exacerbated by hauling hefty patients (Picture: SWNS)

An ambulance worker says he has been left jobless and depressed after developing a hernia from lifting too many overweight patients.

Malcolm Conlan, 48, was aware of the inguinal hernia for more than a year, but feared an operation would leave him unable to do his job and provide for his family.

That nightmare became a reality during an agonising shift over the Bank Holiday weekend last month when a concerned colleague drove him to A&E after seeing him in pain.

He underwent emergency surgery to remove the hernia, but Malcolm has been told he can never do any heavy lifting again.




The hernia was exacerbated, he believes, by the fact that the patients he had to haul have got heavier since he started the job four years ago.

Malcolm says the operation left him unable to do his job and provide for his family (Picture: SWNS)

He said he loved going to work but simply ‘can’t do it anymore’ (Picture: SWNS)

Malcolm, who lives in Bromley, said: ‘I shouldn’t use the word fat, but there’s no doubt that people have been getting bigger. It’s a national problem.

‘If someone who weighs 25 stone is having a heart attack you have to pick them up and carry them – whether you like it or not.

‘You do your best but it can be really hard at times. You want to help these people, so you have to give it a go and try to lift them.

‘But when you have to get them out of bed or take them home it puts extra strain on me.’

The desperate dad, who has never spent so long out of work, is now living off £94 per week in Statutory Sick Pay – which he is entitled to receive for 28 weeks.

‘It has affected me badly,’ he said. ‘I love going to work and love my job, but I can’t do it anymore.

‘To be honest I am finding myself to be very depressed.’

He added: ‘I’m completely stranded. Breadwinner is an old-fashioned term, but I can’t contribute to bills any longer.

‘It’s only been a week and I have already built up some rent arrears.’

Malcolm said he now feels ‘utterly useless’ (Picture: SWNS)

Malcolm was inspired to take up his £350 a week job with Harley Street Ambulance Service, a private company, after saving three lives as an emergency first aid responder at the London Eye.

He was hired after successfully campaigning for a defibrillator to be kept at the popular tourist attraction.

The father-of-two holds no ill will towards his employers for the situation he now finds himself in, adding that he was ‘stupid’ not to have an operation sooner.

He does not know how his family will be able to cope financially and, in a desperate attempt to pay his bills has been forced to start a GoFundMe page – which has already raised nearly £800.

Malcolm is devastated that he will not be able to go back to doing the job that he loves.



‘I love the job with a passion,’ he said.

‘I absolutely love helping people and talking to them, reassuring them.

‘I can never do the job again in my life, and that’s really hard to cope with.

‘I just don’t know what to do. I feel utterly useless.’

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