Food poisoning.

McKneff

Apologies if Im in the wrong place.

My daughter has come back from Egypt (Sharm el) with really bad food poising, she has had to be off work this week, visited the doctors and will be off for at least another week. She works in the food industry and is not allowed back to work until she is completely clear of this, after tests :eek:

She is a chargehand and is well aware of cleanliness etc. and was really careful, teeth brushing with bottled water, etc, etc.

She has seen on a website a ''No win, No fee' solicitors who are taking on claims against the company, the main one being the Hotel where she stayed at. She doesnt want to go down the solicitor route and doesnt want to exploit anyone, all she is interested in is claiming her lost salary, her company only pay SSP.

Are there any template letters on here or can anyone offer any advice.

Thanks in advance.

McKneff

Anyone please............

ALIBOBSY

I would imagine the first port of call would be a letter of complaint to the company concerned. she should be concise and to the point-don't ramble on about puking etc etc.
State what she has in the way of losses ie the difference between full pay and SSP and what she expects them to do to sort the complaint ie. cover her losses/refund some or part of the holiday (was she ill over there so lost some days of the holiday)/small amount of compensation (apart from losses can't see they paying much but you may get money off a future holiday or a small token payment say £50).

Is she absolutely sure the food poisoning was caused by the hotel she stayed at?

There won't really be a template letter as every holiday complaint will be different, not as straight forward as a charge/ppi claim.

See what the company concerned say and take it from there. If you don't like the results you can proceed with court action either through a solicitors or via the small claims court yourselves.

Ali x

Nicki

How will she prove it was food poisoning? MIL came back from Egypt a few years ago with bad v and d which lasted for several weeks. This was said by doctors to be due to parasitic infection which is rife in Egypt and causes these symptoms.

If she can prove it was food poisoning, because she has had for example a stool sample done which shows salmonella or something similar how will she prove she got it at the hotel and not in a restaurant, roadside stall, airport, etc

If she can prove it was food poisoning and she got it at the hotel, if she wants to sue the hotel owners then she'll need to do so in Egypt under Egyptian law as the UK courts have no jurisdiction. I have no idea whether damages are recoverable under Egyptian law for this but should have thought the costs of bringing a claim with all the translation etc which will be required would be prohibitive. And then she needs to enforce the judgment abroad.

In her shoes I would check my travel insurance to see if I could claim. If I had no travel insurance but thought I could prove I had contracted food poisoning from the hotel, and it was a package holiday, I would try claiming against the package holiday company in the UK. If I had no insurance and booked the flights and accommodation myself on the Internet, I'd give up.

McKneff

Thanks both, that was a big help.

Alarm bells rang at the hotel on the first day when one of the other guests told her that 50 people had been taken to hospital the week before and had to have treatment, so they were extra careful, hand washing etc.

She started to be ill on the last day of her holiday so that was a bit of a blessing (lol)

She has to have 3 clear samples before being able to go back to work, no. 1 is done and should be back on Monday

I think the flight home was a bit difficult if you see what i mean.

Thanks again, I'll pass it on.

Annie

snapping_crocodile

Just to add my thoughts here, as others have said it is going to be very difficult to prove that it was food poisoning. In my opinion having been to Sharm on numerous occassions the food is of a good quality....the local currency however is not!! They do not have many crisp egyptian pound notes. Most of their currency looks very dirty and smells and in my opinion, I would not be surprised if a lot of people became ill from handling this. As you say people are very careful eating from the right places and washing their hands before this, but it does not enter their mind to wash their hands after handling the money. Sometimes it can also be because you have not drunk enough water whilst you are there and you get ill in that respect.

I would love to do an experiment and see what bacteria grows on the egyptian money :rotfl:

MrsE_2

snapping_crocodile wrote: »

Just to add my thoughts here, as others have said it is going to be very difficult to prove that it was food poisoning. In my opinion having been to Sharm on numerous occassions the food is of a good quality....the local currency however is not!! They do not have many crisp egyptian pound notes. Most of their currency looks very dirty and smells and in my opinion, I would not be surprised if a lot of people became ill from handling this. As you say people are very careful eating from the right places and washing their hands before this, but it does not enter their mind to wash their hands after handling the money. Sometimes it can also be because you have not drunk enough water whilst you are there and you get ill in that respect.

I would love to do an experiment and see what bacteria grows on the egyptian money :rotfl:

I am convinced that is a total red herring & an old wives tale.
Money the world over is handled constantly by people with dirty unwashed hands. It just so happens the paper they use for their money is paper that doesn't bear up to as much handling as ours & gets older looking quicker.