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Man with Parkinson’s forced to crawl through Heathrow airport on his hands and knees
‘I was in such a state – shaking, dizzy and crawling – that the security team decided I was acting suspiciously’
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Your support makes all the difference.A Parkinson’s sufferer was forced to crawl through Heathrow airport on his hands and knees after Special Assistance said they couldn’t accommodate him.
David Allan, 57, was due to fly from London Gatwick to Edinburgh with British Airways when his flight was cancelled.
The airline was unable to rebook him until the following night on a flight departing from London Heathrow instead.
However, the change of plan meant Allan would run out of his Parkinson’s medication before reaching home.
The Scotland trustee of Parkinson’s UK has to take nine separate medications each day, comprised of 27 tablets, reports Sky News.
No extra medication was readily available, despite Allan calling the NHS 111 service multiple times, visiting local chemists and taking a trip to the Urgent Care Centre in Crawley Hospital.
He started to feel light-headed and unbalanced.
Despite Special Assistance having been booked for Allan at Gatwick, the request was not transferred to Heathrow, and the team said they were too busy to accommodate him when he arrived at the airport.
“I was more or less on my hands and knees crawling through airport security,” said Allan.
”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.”
He added: “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.“
Allan called it “ridiculous” that the airports were so ill-equipped to help him and that medication could not be sourced, adding that he will always take extra supplies in future.
A Heathrow spokesperson told The Independent: “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 British Airways spokesperson confirmed the airline provided accommodation and transportation during the disruption and 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.”
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