Veteran in plea for help over nerve hell caused by service

BY STEPHEN STEWART s.stewart@dailyrecord.co.uk A SCOTS war hero has been left crippled after health chiefs told him to pay for his own painkilling treatment.

Gulf War Syndrome sufferer Allan MacAulay, 49, was diagnosed with nerve damage as a result of his military service.

He was also discharged from the Army with Crohn’s disease – a type of inflammatory bowel disease.

After four operations on his bowels, he now suffers major health complications but the NHS and MoD have both refused to pay for a medical device costing £10,000 – including equipment and surgery – which could end his pain.

Dad Allan, also a Bosnia veteran, said: “The pain is all over my body and in my joints. It is like being a 100-year-old man – so stiff and not able to move about well at all. Most of the time, I can’t get out.

“A doctor told me the nerve pain was to do with my Gulf War Syndrome and a direct result of my military service in the First Gulf War in 1991. I am shocked at the way I have been treated.”

His request for the expensive intrathecal pump – used to target painkilling drug delivery to relieve chronic pain – was turned down.

Allan was told the pump was only for cancer patients and he would need to fund it himself.

The intrathecal implant delivers small amounts of medication directly to the area surrounding the spinal cord to prevent pain signals from being received by the brain.