Man, 30, opens up on the hell of living with condition that causes him to vomit 60 times a DAY – and claims local NHS refused to fund £15k ‘life-changing’ device
A man who vomits up to 60 times a day was forced to buy a new £15,000 battery for a ‘life-changing’ device that helps control his condition—after local NHS chiefs refused.
Matthew Pascoe, 33, was diagnosed with gastroparesis in April 2018 after mistakenly thinking he had picked up a bug.
In fact, he was showing symptoms of the rare disorder, which slows or stops the movement of food from your stomach to your small intestine. It only affects around 14 in 100,000 people in the UK.
It stops sufferers from digesting food, causes abdominal pain, and in Mr Pascoe’s case, means he is sick between 50 and 60 times every day.
He said: ‘There have been days where I’m bed bound because the pain is too much to function as a normal human being.
‘My stomach is essentially paralysed.’
In May 2019, after fundraising for private medical treatment, he had a device called a gastric neurostimulator – which acts like an artificial engine for his digestive system – fitted.
It sends mild electrical pulses to the stomach to help control chronic nausea and vomiting caused by gastroparesis, inserted under the skin.
Matthew Pascoe, who has a condition which leaves him vomiting 60 times a day says he has to fork out £15,000 because the NHS won’t pay for a battery for his life-saving device
The stimulator is powered by a battery that should last 10 to 15 years, but Mr Pascoe’s device works so hard, his battery has only lasted seven.
But the battery is now in the red zone and he’s been warned he has around one month before it shuts down completely – and he will need to replace the battery at a cost of £15,000.
Mr Pascoe, from Colchester, Essex, said: ‘When the stimulator is working, it is a lot more manageable.
‘I used to always love my food and to have the stimulator fitted, I was able to be intrigued with food again.
‘But in the last couple of months, I have reduced how much soluble food I can intake.
‘I’m currently on soups but it’ll soon be nutritional shakes and a feeding tube.’
NHS England guidelines say funding is decided on a case-by-case basis via an Individual Funding Request (IFR) process by local NHS bodies.
The former store manager at Asda, who is also a type-one diabetic, initially thought he’d contracted a bug in 2018.
Mr Pascoe in hospital waiting for the operation
Mr Pascoe’s gastric neurostimulator
He was being sick three or four times a day and rushed to hospital after becoming dehydrated.
Over the next six months, Mr Pascoe deteriorated but found it hard to get answers – as doctors investigated a stomach ulcer and appendix rupture as causes.
His weight plummeted from 14 stone to seven stone in six months and he continued being sick – now up to 60 times a day.
His desperate family got him a private referral after he collapsed at home and his organs began to fail.
Anything he ate just sat there, unable to digest, and began to ferment and rot.
Mr Pascoe said: ‘Everything changed. My specialist, Mr K, changed my medication to liquid, provided me with a dietician and I had my first nose tube fitted.
‘He told me the gastric neurostimulator was my best option.’
However Mr Pascoe’s NHS funding was declined and instead he raised £20k through a fundraiser for the surgery.
Mr Pascoe after his operation in 2019
He had the gastric neurostimulator fitted on May 1, 2019
Mr Pascoe said: ‘The pain is a lot more manageable. I would still have sickness from certain foods but before it was a deep pain radiating through my body.
‘I learnt to stay away from spices. Red meat is hard to digest so you have to change the way you cook things.
‘For the first time in two years, I was able to eat a meal. I was back on my feet, colour back in my face and I was putting on weight slowly.’
He has now reached his fundraiser target of £15k for a new battery but said more needs to be done to acknowledge the condition.
His specialist, Sritharan Kadirkamanathan, who he refers to as Mr K, is the only surgeon in the UK experienced enough to treat this condition.
Mr Pascoe explained: said: ‘I think it needs to be acknowledged. It’s a lifechanging condition.
If you sit and go through the day, food and drink is also a sociable thing.
Mr Pascoe in 2025
‘For someone who can’t sit there and eat and drink – or have the energy to get out of bed to spend time with their loved ones – it’s hard when you speak to your doctor and they look at it as a generic case.
‘I was the first in Essex to be diagnosed with gastroparesis and type one diabetes.
‘For me to have to explain to my hospital the condition, sometimes I feel like we’re seen as numbers rather than people, they want to see you through the books quicker.
‘But in the long run, it costs more in the long-run in the NHS when they could get to the root cause and save thousands of lives.’
