Couple struck down by food bug at Egypt tragedy hotel
A COUPLE struck down with food poisoning at the same Egyptian hotel where two British tourists died last week have shared stomachchurning pictures of raw chicken they claim they were served.
Paul and Bev Vanstone say they got salmonella at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic hotel in Egypt earlier this month.
They were holidaying at the Hurghada resort with their two children and Mr Vanstone’s mother when four of them came down with stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea.
It is the same hotel where John and Susan Cooper, both 64, died last Tuesday during a Thomas Cook ‘holiday of a lifetime.’
The general manager of the hotel, Dieter Geiger, claims preliminary reports by doctors have indicated that the couple died of natural causes, however investigations are ongoing.
The travel company has since removed all its guests from the hotel as a precaution.
Mr Vanstone, 41, shared photos showing raw, pink chicken he claims he was served at the hotel.
He said: “There was a party of six of us that went. My wife was treated for gastroenteritis, my 14-year-old daughter went down with a vomiting and diarrhoea bug and two days before leaving I had really bad stomach cramps and diarrhoea.
“While we were there we had to complain because we were served raw chicken. I ate that but if that had been my daughter... It was raw very, very raw.”
The dad-of-two said he arrived home in Oxford on August 6 and went to the doctor where he was diagnosed with high levels of salmonella poisoning.
He later lodged a complaint with Thomas Cook, but said the doctor was unable to confirm exactly what made them all ill.
Mr Vanstone added: “It could be chicken, it could have been the water, it could have been anything that you can get salmonella from.”
Thomas Cook said that the circumstances of Mr and Mrs Cooper’s deaths were still unclear.
The couple, from Burnley, were on holiday with their daughter Kelly and her three children.
Mr Cooper, a builder, died in a hotel room while his wife, a Thomas Cook employee, was taken to hospital in an ambulance where she died several hours later.
Dieter Geiger, general manager of the Aqua Magic hotel, said he and his staff were ‘deeply saddened’ by Mr and Mrs Cooper’s deaths.
He said: “The doctor’s preliminary report indicates that death was due to natural causes.”