Karen Morrisroe-Clutton was one of four customers who became seriously ill after eating food from a fish and chip shop in July this year.

 

Mrs Morrisroe-Clutton, 32, a librarian and mother, was left fighting for her life after eating a veggie burger from the Llay fish bar and ended up in a coma at Wrexham Maelor hospital. Her mother, Rose Morrisroe, said “she started with stomach trouble, then developed sickness and was passing blood. The doctor became worried and sent for tests, after which she was admitted to intensive care. She’s been in a medically-induced coma since then and is on kidney dialysis and a plasma exchange machine. Things are improving slightly but she’s not out of danger yet.”

 

Three-year-old Abigail Hennessey also suffered a life-threatening bout of food poisoning after eating food from the Llay fish bar. She was transmitted to the specialist Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool and is being treated for renal failure. Her parents Jeffrey, 38, and Sarah have kept a bedside vigil throughout this ordeal.

 

Two other customers were said to be seriously ill after contracting food poisoning from the fish and chip shop which is now closed.

 

The fish and chip shop in question is the Llay fish bar in Wrexham, North Wales. When it was inspected a year earlier it was given zero out of a possible five stars and given one year to improve and make the necessary changes. The report cited “poor hygiene conditions” and “some major non-compliance with food legislation”. The inspection found that there was no soap at hand basins, nothing except a tea towel to dry hands on and hardly any cleaning materials present.

 

The fish bar was due for re-inspection just days after four customers fell ill from the outbreak of E.coli. There has now been an emergency inspection, which revealed flies on pizza toppings and a lack of soap and cleaning materials. The council obtained a court order for the shop to remain closed and an emergency hygiene prohibition notice was served on 31st July. Pierre Bartlett, the solicitor for the shop owner Ramazan Aslan said his client was cooperating with the investigation.

 

Residents condemned the hygiene standards of the fish shop and said that there had been other food scares since last year’s inspection. Neil Stephens, 44, a former customer claimed that he suffered from food poisoning contracted from a chicken kebab which he bought from the shop last July. He said “within twenty-four hours I was hit by diarrhoea, severe stomach cramps and agonising cramps almost as if I was having a heart attack.” He called NHS Direct and an ambulance came out. Neil was treated in hospital before later being discharged. He added that “it took [him] three weeks to recover fully and [he] lost two stone in weight.”

 

E.coli is short for Escherichia coli, of which many strains are harmless. However E.coli0157 can cause a life threatening condition known as haemolytic uraemic syndrome which leads to renal failure and the destruction of red blood cells. It multiplies in the gut and releases toxins that damage the lining of the intestine. Antibiotics have no effect and diarrhoea medicines are counterproductive as they prevent the body from ejecting the bug.

 

Dr Judy Hart, a consultant in communicable disease control at the National Public Health Service for Wales, said that symptoms can range from mild diarrhoea, stomach cramps and fever to bloody diarrhoea. She added that “most people recover without complications, but the most severe cases can develop kidney failure. The infection can also pass from person to person and so it is important that anyone who is ill should observe strict personal hygiene to avoid spreading the infection.” E.coli can also be caught from eating contaminated food, through contact with farm animals or through contact with contaminated water.

Passengers in 1999 crash win right to sue

 

70 passengers on the Britannia Airways flight which crash-landed in Spain in a heavy thunderstorm in 1999 were given permission from a judge in 2003 to claim against Thomson Holidays for the traumatic crash.

 

The Boeing 757 flight from Cardiff airport was carrying 236 passengers when it was forced to land, hitting the ground twice before skidding into a field and breaking into three. Passengers on the flights report they still suffer from nightmares and flashbacks.

 

Despite some passengers receiving compensation for physical injuries sustained, a group of 70 passengers had to fight for their right to claim compensation for psychological injuries following the crash.

 

 

 

 

The controversial decision hinged on the fact that Thomson had not made clear the extent of its liability for psychiatric injuries in its terms and conditions. However, Judge Graham Jones also ruled that passengers could not pursue Britannia Airways for compensation under the protection of the 1929 Warsaw Convention on air travel, which states that airlines cannot be held responsible to psychological injury in addition to physical harm.

 

The Warsaw Convention was described as “grossly outdated” by the group’s solicitor, who welcomed the verdict as a precedent for tour companies not to “hide behind” the Warsaw Convention, but to state clearly in their business terms that they do not accept responsibility for psychological injury (BBC News, 2003).

 

A spokesperson for Thomson Holidays said they were “confident that it will be established that the actions of the Britannia crew demonstrated nothing other than the highest level of professionalism in difficult circumstances and that they were in no way negligent towards their passengers,”

Victim of moped crash contracted infection

 

It took £8,000 worth of funds raised by his family to fly Dean Willis home last August, following a moped accident on the island of Crete which left him seriously injured. But when Dean returned home for treatment in a Nottingham hospital, his family received the devastating news that he had contracted an infection while abroad which could delay his recovery for weeks.

 

Dean, aged 23, was working as a DJ in Crete when he was seriously injured in a moped accident, leaving him badly burnt and with several broken bones. Unfortunately, Dean has since been told by doctors in Nottingham that the MRAB (Multi-Resistant Acinetobacter Baumannii) infection he picked up on the island could compromise his recovery.

 

Without health insurance, Dean’s family had to raise funds themselves to fly Dean back to the UK. Dean is seeing a psychiatrist in hospital; as well as dealing with the pain of his injuries, Dean and his mother are sadly still reliving the trauma of the accident.

Holidaymakers in Koh Samui suffered broken bones

 

A holiday plane which crash-landed on the island of Koh Samui left six tourists injured, while the captain was tragically killed and his co-pilot injured, when it skidded on the rainy runway into an old airport-control tower earlier this month.

 

The Bangkok Airways plane, carrying 72 people, touched down and skidded towards the tower, where its front end collided with the building. Four British holidaymakers were injured, some of whom, as well as the co-pilot, suffered leg injuries.

 

Evacuating the plane took two hours, with the co-pilot among the last to escape from the wreckage. Two of the Britons were fortunate enough not to have sustained serious injuries, but two more were taken to hospital. They had been travelling with Thomas Cook tour operator Gold Medal.

 

A spokesperson for Gold Medal said the two were thought to have a broken leg, and a broken ankle. “We understand they will make a full recovery,” she added. Foreign Office representatives in Thailand are offering the stranded holidaymakers assistance following the crash, which forced the airport to close.

Mr and Mrs Marsden had just begun what they hoped would be a relaxing and enjoyable summer break with their two young children at a campsite in Wales. The reality was “every parent’s worst nightmare” and one few could have imagined.

 

The family were staying in the 125 acre, 100 pitch Greenacres Holiday Park near Portmadog in Gwynedd, North Wales in August 2004 when the accident occurred. Having spent 3 days cooped up inside their caravan due to incessant rain it was a relief when the weather held up briefly and the family could enjoy some fresh air. A court heard that Tracey and Philip had been chatting “briefly” with other holidaymakers when they noticed that their sons were missing. A frantic search was launched to find the two boys but the result was tragic.

 

Matthew, who was two, had wandered off with his 18-month-old brother, Alex. They had covered the 60 yards that lay between them and a pond where, it is thought, Matthew may have chased a duck before falling into the pond. He was found by his father face down in 18 inches of water and a judge later ruled that Matthew’s death was accidental. Mr Marsden, 43, who was an IT Manager from Buckley in Flintshire, suffered nervous shock and psychological trauma after the discovery of his son’s body.

 

Although the pond had been fenced off a year earlier after a four year old boy had fallen in it was only a foot high. The pond was also clearly marked on a site map that was handed out to holidaymakers when they arrived. However Mr and Mrs Marsden successfully sued the park owners, Bourne Leisure, for breaching its duty of care as they were not told there was a pond nearby. The couple also wanted a ruling made that every man-made pond should be fenced off. A judge at Wrexham County Court rejected the claims that the pond was a “trap for the unwary” but said that holidaymakers should have been warned about the pond. The park paid £40,000 in compensation including £15,000 in legal costs.

 

However Bourne Leisure immediately appealed the decision and so GHP Legal held onto the £25,000 compensation in a client account while the outcome of the appeal was decided. Mr and Mrs Marsden have been ordered to repay the compensation as three judges at the Court of Appeal “quashed” the verdict, saying that the holiday park was not to blame. Lord Justice Moses said that “nothing this court can say can adequately measure the suffering of two responsible, attentive and caring parents.”

 

In a family statement Mr Marsden said “I am disappointed in the decision to overturn the original judgement as it seems to have left a loophole in health and safety law. When a parent loses a child you get an overwhelming urge to prevent other children being hurt. I just hope people will realise that you cannot relax on holiday with children and don’t expect others to give the same degree of thought into safety as you may do yourself. I hope all caravan sites with ponds will take this simple step. My family should like to be left alone to grieve for our lovely boy.” The case was conducted on a no win no fee basis and covered by an insurance policy which will pay for the couple’s legal costs.

 

Lord Justice Stanley Burnton said “this was a tragic case and Matthew’s death has been understandably devastating for his parents. But accidents may and do happen to young children without anyone being at fault. A toddler can disappear in a fleeting moment. I don’t think there can be any parent who has not been in that situation. It is impossible to live in a risk-less society.”

 

Lord Justice Moses added that neither the parents nor the owners were to blame describing it as “absurd and offensive to suggest that Mr and Mrs Marsden were in any way at fault. A child may be gone in an instant. But it does not follow from the fact that they were not at fault that Bourne Leisure was in breach of duty. The danger of the lake to a small child, should that child in fact stray, was obvious.” He went on to say that “short of keeping hold of the two children at all times when outside the caravan, there is nothing more the Marsdens could do…Holiday sites will almost inevitably contain sources of danger to small unaccompanied children. Further warnings as to that obvious circumstance could not have any difference.”

A British family’s holiday has come to a tragic and untimely end after their youngest son fell through the railings surrounding their hotel room’s balcony.

 

Richard and Stacey Kremer, of Reading in Berkshire, had only recently arrived at the Laguna Resort in Sardinia with their three children when the accident occurred.

 

Standing out on the balcony with his two sons, Joel aged 5 and Brad aged 18 months, Richard Kremer turned to answer a question asked by his eldest son then looked back in time to see Brad fall from the other side of the railings.

 

Brad hit the tiled roof 10 feet below the balcony and sustained the head injuries that led to his death. His mother Stacey, 35, managed to climb off the balcony and pick him up, whereupon she took him to the hotel reception where an ambulance was called, but despite efforts to resuscitate Brad en route to the hospital, he was pronounced dead on arrival.

 

As no one actually saw how Brad got through the railings, contention has arisen between the family and the 4 star, Chia Laguna hotel over how the child managed to fall in the first place.

 

Contrary to the family’s insistence that their son must have squeezed under the railings, the hotel maintains, that at 10 cm (3.5 inches), the gap between the railings and the balcony wall (which conforms to both British and Italian regulations) would be too small for a toddler to fit their head through it.

 

However, with the top of the railings standing at 105 cm high (41.3 inches), the hotel’s claim that Brad must have climbed over them instead would also appear impossible.

 

The matter is under investigation by the police and, after an autopsy has been carried out, a report will soon be released which will hopefully deliver a verdict, as well as allow the Kremers to bring their son’s body home.

 

In the meantime, the parents have expressed deep gratitude for all the support which they have received, but ask that they and their remaining two children, Joel and three year old Scarlet, be given the space to grieve.

After a three-year battle for a insurance claim for her amputated leg, a nurse won a victory against travel firm Thomas Cook in 2005.

 

The coach accident happened the day before the family were due to leave the resort of Side in Turkey. 40 year-old Sharon Healy suffered serious injuries and, although Turkish doctors had struggled to save her leg, the decision was taken by doctors in the UK that they would need to amputate from the knee down.

 

Despite Mrs Healy booking the coach trip with a Thomas Cook representative, her claim for coach accident compensation was turned down because she had allegedly not booked the day trip before arriving at the resort. The Lancashire woman has now won her battle to claim with the support of Thomas Cook for compensation for her terrible injury in Turkish courts.

 

 

 

Mrs Healy had taken out comprehensive insurance when she booked the £1,000 holiday, but was told that her insurance for the coach trip was invalid according to the 1992 Package Holiday Regulations, because she had purchased the excursion in the Turkish resort.

 

Voicing her dismay at the way Thomas Cook had treated her in appealing to what she called a “get out clause,” Mrs Healy said “It was a horrific accident and my life was turned upside down,” (The Telegraph, 2005). She asserted that she had not been warned against incomprehensive insurance when she booked the trip.

 

 

 

In 2005 the UK Insurance Services Ombudsman found Mrs Healy’s claim in favour, and ordered Thomas Cook to assist her in her compensation claim. They ruled that the Thomas Cook insurance policy was ambiguous, saying it was a tour operator’s responsibility to make such terms clear to customers before their trip.

 

Mrs Healy has now taken up work as a ward clerk, after having to give up her career in nursing after her operation. She has now filed a case against the Turkish coach company involved in the coach accident for £100,000. Thomas Cook said it would be “inappropriate” to comment.

 

 

 

Although this claim appeared at first to be straight forward, Mrs Healy had taken out insurance which she believed would cover her in the event of an incident, such as the coach accident which resulted in the loss of a leg, this proved not to be the case.

 

Without the benefit of expert legal advice, Mrs Healy may not have won her case against Thomas Cook. It is always worthwhile taking legal advice from a specialist solicitor particularly if you suffered an accident while on holiday abroad.

 

Macks Solicitors offer free legal consultation to victims of coach accidents in this country and abroad without obligation. Simply dial Freephone 0800 652 4321 or complete the Online claim form to discuss your claim with an experienced solicitor.