A patient was left close to death after disappearing from an NHS hospital so overwhelmed by overcrowding that a Costa Coffee shop had been turned into a makeshift ward. The terrifying ordeal unfolded at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent , where 75-year-old Nick Sheppard vanished after spending more than a day on a trolley in a packed A&E corridor. He was later found barely alive in nearby woodland, suffering from hypothermia and severe dehydration. His partner of more than 50 years,