Family's holiday hell after E.coli outbreak in Mexico

Jan 29 2010 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

A YOUNG couple claim their dream trip to Mexico became a nightmare after an E. coli outbreak swept through their luxury resort – leaving them with £6,000 medical bills.

Businesswoman Natalie Daymond was celebrating her 23rd birthday during an all-inclusive trip to the North American country with her boyfriend James Clark, 27.

But just four days into the two-week holiday, she was struck down with food poisoning that left her lying in a hospital bed hooked up to emergency machines for four days. As well as being diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, which medical staff said was caused by eating E. coli-infected food, Ms Daymond was taken to hospital suffering bouts of diarrhoea, vomiting, fever and back pains.

Now she is launching legal action against holiday company Thomas Cook, claiming the hygiene inside the Cancun hotel, called Barcelo Costa, was “disgusting” and led to the outbreak of sickness.

Ms Daymond, who owns her own hair and beauty company, said: “It was a nightmare. We had problems at the airport to begin with and then we were put in a room that was filthy.

“I was in hospital for days and didn’t know what was happening. It’s a frightening experience being in a different country and having hallucinations because you are so ill.”

She said the £6,000 hospital bills were reimbursed by her insurance company, but added: “It was still a terrible two weeks.”