Family of Alison Sonnex who died after getting gastroenteritis in Egypt still need answers
14:13, 04 July 2019
updated: 09:23, 05 July 2019
The widower of a teacher who died on holiday in Egypt says he fears he will never find out what caused his wife’s death.
Alison Sonnex, who taught at Dane Court school in Broadstairs, caught gastroenteritis while staying at the five-star Royal Tulip Hotel in Marsa Alam in April 2018, which they booked with Thomas Cook.
She collapsed as she was leaving the hotel with her husband, Clive Eversfield.
WATCH: Alison Sonnex's husband Clive Eversfield speaks after the inquest into his wife's death
But an inquest into the 54-year-old language teacher's death in Sandwich heard the cause of her illness could could not be identified.
Mr Eversfield says he believes he and his wife contracted food poisoning the night before they were due to fly home to Ramsgate.
But the court heard there was little evidence gathered by the Egyptian police to establish cases of food poisoning among the 700 guests at the hotel.
The inquest heard the pair arrived at the hotel on April 5 and did not leave the hotel during their stay, taking all their meals and drinks at their accommodation.
At 1am on April 12, Ms Sonnex and her husband were feeling sick. They managed to catch some rest before packing their bags to leave the next afternoon.
Coroner James Dillon said there were “conflicting” reports but concluded that “on balance it doesn’t indicate any source of food poisoning”.
Police investigators said there was “no evidence of food poisoning” following interviews with “covert sources” from the hotel.
Detectives said they carried out “complementary investigations” into cases of food poisoning.
Recording a narrative verdict, Mr Dillon added: “Someone in the hotel or another guest could have been in contact and passed on by any number of ways, not just physical but aerosol and particles in the air.”
He also failed to rule out her illness could have been exacerbated by an “undiagnosed underlying medical condition” after taking evidence from a pathologist at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.
After she collapsed, Ms Sonnex was treated by the hotel doctor and rushed to the Port Ghalid hospital suffering from severe gastroenteritis with dehydration and low blood pressure.
'I hoped the evidence would have found there was food poisoning' - husband Clive Eversfield
She was put on intravenous drugs to raise her blood pressure and taken to intensive care.
She also received CPR after going into cardiac arrest while in the unit and was revived but did not survive a second round of CPR.
The court heard Mr Eversfield was also diagnosed with gastroenteritis but his condition was less serious.
Mr Dillon concluded the “source of the gastroenteritis is unidentifiable”.
He added: “I’m very sorry that I can’t give more than that.”
Speaking after the inquest, Mr Eversfield said: “Something made us both ill and that was why Alison died.
“Had we not been ill she wouldn’t have died and would still be here today.
“As a personal thing, I think the Egyptians will want to rule food poisoning out because they want people to go on holiday there.
“The likelihood of finding them saying ‘yes, she was poisoned’ are very, very slim.
“It’s still unexplained and people should be aware it is. If you do go to Egypt this could happen to anybody. It’s frustrating it’s taken so long to get here.
“We’re now 15 months after she died and we’re really not any clearer than we were.
“I’ve lived through this, got slightly better over it, and had to go through it yet again.
“It would be nice to put an end to the whole thing and find a conclusion and move on. But it doesn’t seem to be the case. She’ll be missed and is missed every day.”
Mr Eversfield says he will never go back to the country where he visited eight times with his wife before she died.
He is continuing with a civil case against Thomas Cook.
“I hoped the evidence would have found there was food poisoning,” Mr Eversfield added.
“If that’s the case they should put procedures in place so people don’t get food poisoning and go on holiday and come back together.
“We don’t want this to go on that people go on holiday and get ill. It’s not right.”
A Thomas Cook spokesman sent their sympathies to Ms Sonnex's family.
“Our reps in Egypt and our welfare team provided immediate support to the family at the time," the company said in a statement.
"Our head of customer welfare stayed in touch with Mr Eversfield and continued to offer support in the months following. No other cases of sickness were reported at the hotel when Ms Sonnex died and it is still not apparent how Ms Sonnex became ill.
“We have cooperated fully with investigations into Ms Sonnex’s death in Egypt and the UK and provided the information requested by the coroner. Our deepest sympathy remains with Mr Eversfield, family and friends.”
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