I needed PFA to spend £40k to save my life... but they refused to help with my serious heart conditionMy recent personal experience of the PFA has been one of total neglectI approached them in 2014 when I was diagnosed with a serious heart conditionThe players union then flatly refused to assist paying for my surgeryBy KEN MCNAUGHT FOR THE DAILY MAILPUBLISHED: 22:30, 21 November 2018 | UPDATED: 00:09, 22 November 2018I was a member of the PFA from my teenage years. In those days it was an annual fee, taken out of your wages, plus they always got a share of any transfer fees.It was advertised that your membership raised the benevolent fund and once your playing days were over you were covered. But my recent experience of the PFA has been one of total neglect.I approached them in 2015 when I was diagnosed with a serious heart condition. My aortic root needed replacing. Initially I asked the PFA for assistance on getting an MRI scan done privately as the NHS wait was a number of months. The cost was £1,050 but the PFA were very reluctant. In the end after numerous phone calls to chase they agreed and I had it done in the April, rather than the July. Results revealed I needed an operation.But then there was an enormous wait and I found out it was because the PFA hadn't paid the bill. Eventually they did but it meant that rather than speeding up the process it had slowed down.The PFA then flatly refused to assist on my surgery. My wife Maureen worked as a medical receptionist so she found out an estimate of £37,500, but when I told the PFA representative he went cold, saying, 'We can't afford those costs, we can cover knee and hip operations.' I said, 'You're talking about somebody's life here.' In the end my cardiologist suggested I give up the PFA side of things because I was well down the road on the NHS waiting list. Eventually, after having four postponements, I went under the knife in February 2016. It had been an long process of a year and I felt like I was stepping on eggshells the whole time. The specialist had told me that my condition would lead to an embolism, which is when your aneurysm bursts and your body fills with blood. I'd be dead before I hit the floor.I was always terrified at night, waking at two or three o'clock just to see if I was still alive. It's constantly on your mind and any pain in your chest you immediately think, what's that?In all that period the PFA knew my problem, but it was always a case of me having to phone them seeking advice. I never received one phone call from any of them in regards to assistance. It wasn't purely financial help I was looking for. I remember one time I spoke to Gordon Taylor's right-hand man and I burst into tears because of the effect it was having on my family. All I wanted was somebody who knew how getting a private operation worked and could take all that pressure away. Somebody to pick up the phone, speak to the surgeons, organise.There were long waits and three cancellations of operations. Once I was actually in hospital overnight, my chest shaved at five o'clock in the morning, as prep, only for the registrar to say, 'We can't take you we've had a transplant fly in.' The NHS were brilliant though, I've only got praise, what with all their financial problems. But it was galling that the PFA were sitting on huge amounts of money and couldn't help with private care. That £2million Lowry painting, how much is it worth now? But to spend £40,000 on an ex-player, saving his life, what benefit do they get? They are out of pocket, that's the way they look at it.I'm brand new, now. The NHS surgeon and cardiologist are very pleased. They managed to save the aortic root but they had to put a graft into the aortic valve. There were complications, though. The operation was supposed to last four-and-a-half hours and it lasted eight-and-a-half. The cardiologist has since suggested to me I was less than a week away from it bursting.Doctors don't know if football was a factor in my heart condition, it could be genetic. I can remember training at Everton, though. In those days we were fitness-tested twice a season and you had an endurance test where you ran across the gym, 40 yards there-back, there-back, and they crudely took your pulse. You weren't allowed to stop until it went over 200 beats per minute. If your pulse gets anywhere near that rate nowadays - because they are hooked up to GPS - they are told to stop.I've heard stories that if you do that kind of exercise at a young age it exaggerates any deficiencies in your heart. It needs to be proven through research. As we have seen with dementia the PFA do not lead the way. You would think instead of being reactive they would be proactive.I'm not looking for any sympathy. I'm just telling my own experience. I can't change anything, but maybe my story will mean it won't happen to someone else in the future. Ken McNaught was talking to Laurie Whitwell
There was an article in the same paper yesterday of Jlloyd Samuels partner who went to the PFA after he passed away as he only had 2k left in his account and she couldn't afford the funeral costs. She asked for 70k to help with the upkeep of their family for life.They offered 11k as they couldn't afford any more, don't know if she needs it but I'm sure Gordon Taylor doesn't need 2.2 million a year.
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Topic: Ken McNaught and the PFA (Read 3471 times)
