LONDON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- British hospital officials who refused a dying patient's request for a courtesy ambulance ride home have apologized to her survivors.
Katie James, who suffered from a rare form of cancer, died last week, hours after a relative paid $251 for a private ambulance to take her to her Cardiff home.
Staff at Velindre Hospital had told her family there was no National Health Service ambulance available, the BBC reported Saturday.
James, whose funeral was held Friday, died after 18 months of treatment for Ewing's Sarcoma -- a rare form of cancer that had spread to her lungs.
Nearly two weeks ago, her condition deteriorated and she decided she wanted to go home to be with her family.
Relatives were still angry, after James' funeral.
"I had a car outside, but they wouldn't allow me to bring her home in a car because of the oxygen," said Sharon James, her mother. "But all I wanted was just to bring her home. We were supposed to pick her up at 12 o'clock on the Thursday, so we could have had all day with my daughter at home.
