A patient from West Harrow who weighed more than 35 stone had to be helped out of her first-floor flat by firefighters so that she could be taken to hospital.
Specialist rescue equipment comprising a pulley, a winch and a stretcher was called in from Wembley Fire Station to lower the woman down the stairs into the waiting ambulance at 10.45am yesterday.
She was experiencing chest pains and apparently had not left her Vaughan Road property for four years.
Simon Horn, Wembley's red watch crew manager, said: “Recently we have a spate of these jobs. There was one in Kenton a couple of weeks ago where Stanmore firefighters had to remove a window.”
A spokeswoman for London Ambulance Service confirmed two ambulances, a duty officer and a fast response car were sent to a residential address in Vaughan Road but said she could not disclose further details.
