Irwin Mitchell’s International Personal Injury team helped to secure compensation for seven holidaymakers who had their lives ‘turned upside down’ after suffering illness while staying at the Lobos Bahia Club in Fuerteventura.
The family-of-nine from Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, travelled to the resort for a two week break in August 2010. Soon after their arrival, one of the group, Anna, fell ill with symptoms including diarrhoea, vomiting, fever and stomach cramps. Anna felt so sick that she had to visit the hotel’s clinic and was placed on an IV drip.
After returning to the UK, Anna visited her GP and tests showed that she had contracted Salmonella. As a consequence she is now unable to eat dairy products and four years on, she continues to suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Her son, Matteo, who was also on the holiday, has been diagnosed with post-infective IBS and her mother, Veronica, took two months to recover from similar symptoms contracted at the hotel.
Our expert travel lawyers have helped to secure the family a five figure settlement from Lowcostholidays Limited, despite the tour operator denying that the holiday was sold as a package. We are continuing to help two further members of the family who travelled with the group to pursue their claims.
Discussing the case, Anna said: “We went on holiday to enjoy some much needed time away, but we ended up going through an absolutely horrendous experience. The last thing I expected when booking the holiday was to end up spending most of my break stuck in my hotel room or on a drip in the hotel’s clinic.”
Anna described the conditions as very disappointing, adding: “The conditions were so bad that some of our family moved to a different resort halfway through the holiday and the illness didn’t just affect us during our holiday. We all continued to suffer symptoms long after our return to the UK and some of us have been diagnosed with IBS which is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future.
“Now a settlement has been secure we will finally be able to move on from what we went through and the impact it has had on our day-to-day lives.”
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