Specialist Lawyers At Irwin Mitchell Investigating Illness At Pegasos World Hotel

A Kent family who all endured gastric illness while staying at a Turkish hotel have instructed expert international personal injury lawyers at national law firm Irwin Mitchell to investigate the cause of their symptoms which left them confined to their hotel rooms for long periods of their holiday.

Andrew Payne, 47, his wife Louise, 45, and their two children Conor, 14, and Jack 13, travelled to the Pegasos World Hotel in Antalya, Turkey in August 2015 after booking the trip through TUI UK Limited.

However, just days into their week-long stay at the four-star hotel, Louise began to suffer with diarrhoea and stomach pains. Later that same day, Jack began suffering with similar symptoms, as well as problems with his ear. He visited the medical centre and was diagnosed with an ear infection and returned to the medical centre for the following three days for treatment.

The following day Andrew and Conor also began to suffer from similar gastric symptoms and were treated by their GP on their return to the UK.

The family, from Ryarsh, West Malling, has now instructed specialist international personal injury lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate the cause of the illness they suffered at the hotel to help them understand if the tour operator could have done more to improve hygiene standards at the hotel.

Andrew and Louise reported to their legal team that the swimming pool at the resort was not as clean as they expected. On one occasion the pool was closed for just a short period of time after a baby’s soiled nappy had come off in the pool. In addition to this, the family said that they sometimes saw staff at the hotel restaurant placing new food on top of old food on the buffet, rather than properly replacing the dishes when they required replenishing. On one occasion, Andrew also noticed that the bar staff were not thoroughly washing glasses.

Jatinder Paul, an Associate Solicitor and specialist international personal injury lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, said:

Expert Opinion

“The reports we have heard from Andrew and his family are very concerning. Appropriate standards of hygiene in the swimming pools of large hotels are crucial as infections and illness can quickly spread if the environment is not cleaned thoroughly after an incident like the one they have described to us.

“All four members of this family suffered significant gastric illness with two suffering with ear infections while staying at the Pegasos World Hotel, which meant they spent long periods of their week-long holiday confined to their rooms, unable to enjoy the facilities they had paid for.

“We have now launched our own investigations into their concerns and we would urge anyone else who endured similar problems at the four-star hotel to contact us as soon as possible as they may be able to help with our investigations.” Jatinder Paul - Partner

Andrew, a fireman, was forced to take three days off work as his symptoms continued on his return home to Kent. He also told his legal team at Irwin Mitchell that he saw other holidaymakers at the hotel complaining to staff after suffering similar symptoms.

He said: “There were a lot of people queuing up in reception at the hotel to complain about sickness and ear infections whilst we were staying there.

“For us, the illness we all suffered completely ruined the holiday as we were all suffering terrible symptoms and as a result spent the majority of the holiday in our rooms or in the medical centre.

“We want to know what caused our illness and if better hygiene standards at the hotel would have prevented us from suffering so much. Hopefully, by taking legal action we will finally get some answers to our questions, which seemed to fall on deaf ears while we were in Turkey.”