COVENTRY, England -- When 62-year-old Trizka Litton waited seven months for an operation to cure a hernia, she became desperate and decided it was time to take action. To convince paramedics she had vomited blood, she made fake blood out of crumbled biscuits and cranberry juice and stuck it in a microwave dish. The ambulancemen took her to Walgrave Hospital in Coventry where she discarded the blood in a trash can before it could be tested. After she was examined, she was given a bed and taken the next day for an emergency operation. Now fully recovered, Trizka said, "I carried a heavy burden of guilt and shame at being forced to cheat and lie. But it vanished when doctors told me just how near death I had been."