Ambulance service chiefs and unions have condemned the actions of thugs who prevented a paramedic from going to the aid of a dying woman by hurling fireworks at the health worker. They spoke out after a pensioner told how armed youngsters stopped the medic from attending to his wife who had suffered a heart attack in her living room.

Fred Jones, 77, said he wanted to draw public attention to the attack because he did not want another family to go through what his had. His wife, Winnie, 57, was deprived of oxygen for at least 10 minutes because the paramedic was stuck in his car just yards from her house in Penicuik, Midlothian. According to his training, he had to take cover in his vehicle and wait for back up after coming under attack.

Mrs Jones had collapsed after complaining of feeling unwell on January 23 and relatives called the NHS24 health helpline, who dispatched a paramedic unit. But before it arrived, she began to struggle to breathe and they called 999.

She then stopped breathing altogether and her daughter, Angela, struggled to revive her with mouth-to-mouth. A relative said: “While all this was happening, a family friend looked out and saw a paramedic parked outside. He ran up the street and asked the guy what he was doing. The ambulance man said he had been hit on the head with a firework and had to wait for back up.”

However, the paramedic then risked his safety to dash to the family home in and was struck on the back with a firework as he ran. Mrs Jones had stopped breathing and died three days later in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Mr Jones said: “I'm devastated. Nothing will ever bring my wife back. All we want now are lessons to be learned and for this to never happen to anybody else.”

Mrs Jones was a community care worker and spent her life visiting the elderly. Her son, Christopher, said: “If the medic wasn't being shot at by fireworks he would have got in sooner and could have revived my mum quicker. We'll never know if she would have survived but we know she would have had a better chance.”

The Emergency Workers Act of 2005 made it an offence to assault, obstruct or hinder someone providing emergency services or assisting an emergency worker. The maximum penalty is nine months in jail, a £5,000 fine or both. In 2006-07, 200 people were convicted under the Act, compared with 54 the previous year. Lothian and Borders Police said officers were investigating the incident and liaising with the Procurator Fiscal. The force said no one had been arrested in connection with the attack.

Yesterday, ambulance workers said that while they believed that the attack was the first of its kind in Scotland, it was symptomatic of the country's drink and drugs culture. John Morton, spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service, said such assaults seemed to be the result of a “societal problem” which the service did not know how to tackle. “It is beyond us why anyone would want to assault or threaten ambulance crews,” he said.

The attack has thrown the issue of single-manned vehicles into the political arena. A single response unit was sent to Mrs Jones and an ambulance arrived as back up later. Campaigners say that the service is inadequate because staff must wait for back up if they are attacked.

The Scottish government said it was “very clear” in calling for all ambulances to have more than one person on board in case of an attack. However, the Scottish Ambulance Service said a change in policy would make no difference because First Response vehicles were sent ahead of the ambulance as they were quicker - not as an alternative to ambulances.

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