Mum killed by just a few bites of uncooked chicken

‘Come to the hospital quickly’

A FIT and healthy mother died after eating just a few bites of uncooked chicken while on holiday in Greece.

Natalie Rawnsley, 37, was abroad with her husband Stewart and two young sons when she was struck down with severe food poisoning, an inquest heard.

She rapidly deteriorated in just 36 hours after consuming the chicken at a hotel restaurant.

Mrs Rawnsley, a triathlete, died after blood clots formed all over her body, Westminster Coroner’s Court was told.

Her husband also said that as she lay desperately ill in a hospital bed in Corfu, his insurance company insisted she should not be moved to the mainland.

The coroner heard the Rawnsley family, from Harpenden, Hertfordshire, left for the Greek island on August 13 last year and were just beginning their second week when tragedy struck. Mr Rawnsley said: ‘The hotel had two or three restaurants. It was a buffet or restaurant and we had all four of us eating together.

‘I had both my boys with me, we had pasta, bread and sausages. Natalie had a completely different dinner which consisted of chicken, salad, prawns and vegetables. We were already at the table when Natalie came back with her food.

‘Natalie started to eat hers and as she cut the chicken the chicken oozed red blood, at which point I commented it looked bloody. She got up, took it back, replaced the chicken with a different piece and came back and ate it.

‘She had had a few mouthfuls of the other piece of chicken.’ Mr Rawnsley said his wife had complained that evening of feeling unwell, but had not said anything specific about her symptoms. He was then woken up at 3am when she started being sick in the hotel bathroom. He told the inquest: ‘The doctor came at around 7am. After he diagnosed gastroenteritis at that point he told us to separate – to stop me and the kids catching it. I took the kids for breakfast, took them for a swim.

‘At 11am I came back to check on her. She was still being sick and asked me to go back to the doctors and get more assistance.’ Mrs Rawnsley was taken to hospital in an ambulance that afternoon.

Her husband continued: ‘ At 11pm in the evening the first doctor … knocked on my door and explained that I needed to get dressed and I needed to come to the hospital quickly. She was fully awake and aware, and happy to see me, but obviously distressed and concerned.

‘There was pain in her legs and she had also had a number of red blotches all over her.’

Mrs Rawnsley’s brother and niece arrived later, the inquest heard, and her relatives gathered around her as she lay unconscious in the makeshift intensive care unit where she died.

Assistant coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe recorded a verdict of death by the accidental consumption of E. coli-infected chicken.