Ben Newman, a British street-food vendor known as "Spudman," missed a flight to Croatia after Dutch carrier KLM initially declined to accept his dialysis machine at check-in, he said in a video posted on social media.

Newman, 40, who has been living with kidney failure since 2010, told his 632,000 Instagram followers that airport staff refused to handle the device because it exceeded a 32-kilogram limit, despite what he said were prior approvals from the airline's medical team. "We are having the trip from hell already," he said in the video filmed inside the airport. "We've been refused to get on the plane because my dialysis machine weighs about 45/50 kilos. They've been like, 'No, it's too heavy, we can't touch it. It needs to go on a cargo plane or something.' and I'm like, 'It's not cargo, it's a dialysis machine!'"

Newman said the machine is essential to his survival and that he can last only "about two or three days" without treatment. He said he had arranged the travel and medical needs through "all the right channels" and that the airline's medical team had told him the machine could travel as a passenger item. At the check-in desk, however, he said staff denied the carriage and told him the device would have to go on cargo or possibly the next flight.

In a subsequent update from the departure lounge, Newman said KLM had become "very helpful" and that the machine was placed between his legs ready to board. He said he and his party would have to carry the equipment onto the aircraft and that the delay meant a longer journey, with a five-hour layover in Amsterdam before the onward flight to Croatia.

Newman, a father of nine who built a public profile selling jacket potatoes, urged other dialysis patients to be cautious: "If you are a dialysis patient, don't fly with KLM," he said in the earlier clip.

The video was posted on Saturday. Newman said he had initially been told the machine might be booked on the next flight, leaving him to wait at the airport for several hours until staff confirmed arrangements. The account of events was reported by media outlets that sought comment from KLM.

A KLM spokesperson was not quoted in Newman’s video. Media outlets covering the incident said they had contacted KLM for comment; the airline had not issued an immediate public statement in the available reports. The episode highlights tensions that can arise when passengers with essential medical equipment travel by air and the importance of clear coordination between airline medical teams and ground staff.