Man with Parkinsons ‘crawled’ through Gatwick airport after flight cancellation

A man who suffers from Parkinson’s has recalled how he was left to crawl through airport security after his flight was cancelled and he had ran out of medication.

57-year-old David Allan, who is the Scotland trustee of Parkinson’s UK, had been attending a two-day board meeting in London, and was heading back to Edinburgh via Gatwick Airport.

The charity has hit out at the treatment of Mr Allan from Clackmannanshire, and called it “shocking and unacceptable”.

Mr Allan had been due to depart Gatwick at 9.25pm, but was told his British Airways (BA) flight had been cancelled and he would not be able to fly until 10pm the following day from Heathrow – causing him to be left short of his medication.

He has to take 27 tablets each day, made up from nine separate medicines, with many needing to be take at set times.

After repeated phone calls to the NHS’ 111 service, and trips to a chemist and the Urgent Care Centre in Crawley Hospital, it became evident that there were no supplies available to him either at the airport, or in the towns surrounding it.

He then found his medication starting to wear off and and said his mobility failed to the point where he could not walk, as well as feeling light headed and faint.

At the special assistance desk at Heathrow before his journey home, Mr Allan said he was informed that BA had not passed on his assistance from Gatwick, and that they were fully booked and could not help him.

Mr Allan said: “After making sure again there was no medication available at the pharmacies in Heathrow I made my way to security.

“I was more or less on my hands and knees crawling through airport security.

“I’m prone to falling as a result of my Parkinson’s – especially when I’m off – so that journey through a busy airport was extremely difficult as I was afraid of being knocked over.

“Previous falls had led me to fracturing both my hips and therefore having both hips replaced.

“I warned the security team that I had metal hips and would set off the detectors.

“But I was in such a state – shaking, dizzy and crawling – that the security team decided I was acting suspiciously and took me aside for further probing.”

Mr Allan added: “It seems ridiculous that in this modern, connected world there was no way I could access medication and that the airline and airports were so ill-equipped to help.

“I’ll be taking extra supplies with me every time I travel in future.”

The airline has since said that transportation and accommodation was provided to Mr Allan, and that he was re-booked onto another flight.

They also said their assistance is provided by a third party, rather than them, and that they recommend customers carry enough medicine to allow for disruption to their travel plans.

A BA spokeswoman said: “We’re sorry to hear of Mr Allan’s experience during the major weather and air traffic control disruption, which affected a number of airlines last week.

“More than a million customers requiring assistance choose to fly with us every year and we take their needs extremely seriously. We are investigating what happened with the assistance provider appointed by the airport.”

A spokeswoman for Heathrow said: “The experience that Mr Allan had when travelling through our airport is unacceptable and we apologise unreservedly that this fell short of standards we expect.

“Our aim is to accommodate the needs of all passengers requiring special assistance and our team is getting in touch with Mr Allen to look into the particular circumstances of his journey as a matter of urgency.”

A Gatwick spokesman said: “We’re sorry to hear about the terrible experience that Mr Allan has had throughout his journey.

“We are disappointed that we did not do more to help when we had the opportunity and we will review our procedures to try and prevent this sort of incident from occurring again.”

(c) Sky News 2019: Man with Parkinsons ‘crawled’ through Gatwick airport after flight cancellation