Veteran Steve faces £20,000 NHS bill over loophole after heart attack

73-YEAR-OLD FACES HAVING TO PAY £50 A MONTH OVER THE NEXT 30 YEARS

- By CHRIS BALLINGER and LILY SHANAGHER

AN ARMED forces veteran from Croydon who suffered a heart attack and spent three months fighting for his life is now stuck paying off a £20,000 NHS bill for the rest of his life due to rules over where he was living at the time.

Steve Foreman, 73, was living and working on an oil rig in Ogaden, Ethiopia when he collapsed and suffered a heart attack at the age of 62.

The veteran was airlifted to the nearest hospital in Nairobi, Kenya and then suffered a catastrophic cardiac arrest and slipped into a coma for 13 days. He was on a kidney dialysis machine, given a tracheotomy and had a blood transfusion as he had suffered total organ failure and several infections.

After three months of critical care in Nairobi, he was flown back to the UK and transferred to Worksop Hospital so that his brother, Grant - whom he says asked the NHS to confirm he was eligible for free treatment - could care for him. After being stable, he was transferred to Doncaster Royal Infirmary for tracheotomy surgery.

But when he finally came out of the hospital after about two months he was given a £20,000 bill from the NHS. The British citizen, who had been working in Africa and the Middle East for the last 20 years but originally served in the British Army, was shocked as he was under the impression he wouldn’t have to pay.