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Holiday Excursion Accident
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youaremysunshine_2
Posts: 63 Forumite

Hello, i am looking for some advice
We booked a holiday with Tui to the Caribbean for our family, five days in we went on an excursion booked through Tui, we opted for the "top option" for the excursion as our rep had "sold it to us" that this was the premium experience and that other excursions booked to by other local companies would not be as safe as this one, we would get there "top experience"
The excursion was via boat to a tropical island for a day of snorkelling and to spend time on the beach. It took around an hour to get there and sadly after 15minutes my eight year old daughter stood on coral/sharp rock in the sea and sliced open the side of her foot leaving a large piece of jagged skin and a profuse amount of blood (she really made a real mess of it!) i carried her to the sun loungers whilst my husband went for medical assistance, he came back along with a member of staff carrying a medical kit the staff member put down the kit, the kit resembled a tool box with very minimal medical items. The member of staff then left. We sat there dumbfounded. There was no member of medical staff to attend to our daughter, no-one helped us, we waited whilst trying to calm our girl down, a member of the public (American on holiday) who happened to be a nurse made herself known and took over - she literally was our guardian angel, with the basic kit she patched our daughter up. Several members of staff came over, looked and then left. No member of staff with any medical training on that island made themselves known at all whilst we were there, our daughters accident was "a cut" albeit a severe one (bled all over the beach) but there should have been a member of staff there who had medical training (even basic) i am thankful that she did not break a limb or anything more severe. She is permanently scarred from the accident and it has terrified her.
The excursion leader/staff member who was escorting our excursion popped over a few times but we saw no medic and filled out no accident paperwork, a Tui member of staff was on the beach (in a t-shirt) he never approached us. Nothing (to our knowledge) was ever recorded by Tui regarding her accident, our names were never taken, nothing filled in our signed - nothing.
Upon our return to the hotel our daughter saw a doctor who treated her wounds and gave us medication - we dealt with this via our insurance company.
I filled out medical/accident documentation with the doctor at the hotel and hotel concierge but heard nothing from our Tui representative - we have no idea if she knew it had happened from the excursion leader/staff member??? The day after the accident at 11am (the accident happened around 11am the prior day) i went to the rep to inform her of the accident - she had heard from the hotel concierge (but clearly didn't feel the need to contact us to see how our daughter was) i filled out a very basic report with the member of staff. They didn't contact us again during the rest of our holiday to check up etc.
Needless to say the remainder of our holiday was hopeless, our daughter couldn't walk unaided for two days as she couldn't put her foot down. She had nightmares. We had to put cling film all over het foot in order to keep out any germs/sand etc, no pool, antibiotics etc. This continued when we returned home in the UK, a second course of ongoing antibiotics were required due to her wound being infected, she couldn't wear shoes for three weeks (in January) and is permanently scarred.
The service from the rep when we got back was rubbish but i'm utterly horrified that we could go to this (very beautiful) island with a huge tour operator, have an accident and be left with no medical assistance, obviously there was no doctors surgery on "the island" but Tui must have some "standards" and "duty of care" regarding this kind of scenario?? What if someone had a serious life threatening medical problem whilst taking part in an excursion led by Tui to this location?
Should i forward this complain to ABTA, do Tui have a Health & Safety department that i can involve?
We booked a holiday with Tui to the Caribbean for our family, five days in we went on an excursion booked through Tui, we opted for the "top option" for the excursion as our rep had "sold it to us" that this was the premium experience and that other excursions booked to by other local companies would not be as safe as this one, we would get there "top experience"
The excursion was via boat to a tropical island for a day of snorkelling and to spend time on the beach. It took around an hour to get there and sadly after 15minutes my eight year old daughter stood on coral/sharp rock in the sea and sliced open the side of her foot leaving a large piece of jagged skin and a profuse amount of blood (she really made a real mess of it!) i carried her to the sun loungers whilst my husband went for medical assistance, he came back along with a member of staff carrying a medical kit the staff member put down the kit, the kit resembled a tool box with very minimal medical items. The member of staff then left. We sat there dumbfounded. There was no member of medical staff to attend to our daughter, no-one helped us, we waited whilst trying to calm our girl down, a member of the public (American on holiday) who happened to be a nurse made herself known and took over - she literally was our guardian angel, with the basic kit she patched our daughter up. Several members of staff came over, looked and then left. No member of staff with any medical training on that island made themselves known at all whilst we were there, our daughters accident was "a cut" albeit a severe one (bled all over the beach) but there should have been a member of staff there who had medical training (even basic) i am thankful that she did not break a limb or anything more severe. She is permanently scarred from the accident and it has terrified her.
The excursion leader/staff member who was escorting our excursion popped over a few times but we saw no medic and filled out no accident paperwork, a Tui member of staff was on the beach (in a t-shirt) he never approached us. Nothing (to our knowledge) was ever recorded by Tui regarding her accident, our names were never taken, nothing filled in our signed - nothing.
Upon our return to the hotel our daughter saw a doctor who treated her wounds and gave us medication - we dealt with this via our insurance company.
I filled out medical/accident documentation with the doctor at the hotel and hotel concierge but heard nothing from our Tui representative - we have no idea if she knew it had happened from the excursion leader/staff member??? The day after the accident at 11am (the accident happened around 11am the prior day) i went to the rep to inform her of the accident - she had heard from the hotel concierge (but clearly didn't feel the need to contact us to see how our daughter was) i filled out a very basic report with the member of staff. They didn't contact us again during the rest of our holiday to check up etc.
Needless to say the remainder of our holiday was hopeless, our daughter couldn't walk unaided for two days as she couldn't put her foot down. She had nightmares. We had to put cling film all over het foot in order to keep out any germs/sand etc, no pool, antibiotics etc. This continued when we returned home in the UK, a second course of ongoing antibiotics were required due to her wound being infected, she couldn't wear shoes for three weeks (in January) and is permanently scarred.
The service from the rep when we got back was rubbish but i'm utterly horrified that we could go to this (very beautiful) island with a huge tour operator, have an accident and be left with no medical assistance, obviously there was no doctors surgery on "the island" but Tui must have some "standards" and "duty of care" regarding this kind of scenario?? What if someone had a serious life threatening medical problem whilst taking part in an excursion led by Tui to this location?
Should i forward this complain to ABTA, do Tui have a Health & Safety department that i can involve?
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Comments
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youaremysunshine_2 said:Hello, i am looking for some advice
We booked a holiday with Tui to the Caribbean for our family, five days in we went on an excursion booked through Tui, we opted for the "top option" for the excursion as our rep had "sold it to us" that this was the premium experience and that other excursions booked to by other local companies would not be as safe as this one, we would get there "top experience"
The excursion was via boat to a tropical island for a day of snorkelling and to spend time on the beach. It took around an hour to get there and sadly after 15minutes my eight year old daughter stood on coral/sharp rock in the sea and sliced open the side of her foot leaving a large piece of jagged skin and a profuse amount of blood (she really made a real mess of it!) i carried her to the sun loungers whilst my husband went for medical assistance, he came back along with a member of staff carrying a medical kit the staff member put down the kit, the kit resembled a tool box with very minimal medical items. The member of staff then left. We sat there dumbfounded. There was no member of medical staff to attend to our daughter, no-one helped us, we waited whilst trying to calm our girl down, a member of the public (American on holiday) who happened to be a nurse made herself known and took over - she literally was our guardian angel, with the basic kit she patched our daughter up. Several members of staff came over, looked and then left. No member of staff with any medical training on that island made themselves known at all whilst we were there, our daughters accident was "a cut" albeit a severe one (bled all over the beach) but there should have been a member of staff there who had medical training (even basic) i am thankful that she did not break a limb or anything more severe. She is permanently scarred from the accident and it has terrified her.
The excursion leader/staff member who was escorting our excursion popped over a few times but we saw no medic and filled out no accident paperwork, a Tui member of staff was on the beach (in a t-shirt) he never approached us. Nothing (to our knowledge) was ever recorded by Tui regarding her accident, our names were never taken, nothing filled in our signed - nothing.
Upon our return to the hotel our daughter saw a doctor who treated her wounds and gave us medication - we dealt with this via our insurance company.
I filled out medical/accident documentation with the doctor at the hotel and hotel concierge but heard nothing from our Tui representative - we have no idea if she knew it had happened from the excursion leader/staff member??? The day after the accident at 11am (the accident happened around 11am the prior day) i went to the rep to inform her of the accident - she had heard from the hotel concierge (but clearly didn't feel the need to contact us to see how our daughter was) i filled out a very basic report with the member of staff. They didn't contact us again during the rest of our holiday to check up etc.
Needless to say the remainder of our holiday was hopeless, our daughter couldn't walk unaided for two days as she couldn't put her foot down. She had nightmares. We had to put cling film all over het foot in order to keep out any germs/sand etc, no pool, antibiotics etc. This continued when we returned home in the UK, a second course of ongoing antibiotics were required due to her wound being infected, she couldn't wear shoes for three weeks (in January) and is permanently scarred.
The service from the rep when we got back was rubbish but i'm utterly horrified that we could go to this (very beautiful) island with a huge tour operator, have an accident and be left with no medical assistance, obviously there was no doctors surgery on "the island" but Tui must have some "standards" and "duty of care" regarding this kind of scenario?? What if someone had a serious life threatening medical problem whilst taking part in an excursion led by Tui to this location?
Should i forward this complain to ABTA, do Tui have a Health & Safety department that i can involve?The important question is what are you looking to achieve?You must remember that standards in the Carribean will be totally different to what you would expect in the UK.She cut her foot, was provided with bandages and you went to the Dr at the hotel. You keep saying 'medic', I presume you mean a first aider? Again, this all depends on the law out in the Caribbean.2 -
It’s barely been 2 months. Why do you keep going on about her ‘permanent scars’ plus they’re on the bottom of her foot, not exactly her face...
You could maybe have a moan about the lack of attention at the time of the injury but she stood on something sharp. You can’t blame anyone for that, never mind her not being able to wear shoes, go in the pool, live without a clingfilmed foot etc. She stood on a sharp item in the sea. That is no ones fault! You can’t blame Tui for a sharp rock in the sea. Are they supposed to remove all the rocks onthe bit of the beach the people who ticked the ‘top option’ were going to be?
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youaremysunshine_2 said:Hello, i am looking for some advice
We booked a holiday with Tui to the Caribbean for our family, five days in we went on an excursion booked through Tui, we opted for the "top option" for the excursion as our rep had "sold it to us" that this was the premium experience and that other excursions booked to by other local companies would not be as safe as this one, we would get there "top experience"
The excursion was via boat to a tropical island for a day of snorkelling and to spend time on the beach. It took around an hour to get there and sadly after 15minutes my eight year old daughter stood on coral/sharp rock in the sea and sliced open the side of her foot leaving a large piece of jagged skin and a profuse amount of blood (she really made a real mess of it!) i carried her to the sun loungers whilst my husband went for medical assistance, he came back along with a member of staff carrying a medical kit the staff member put down the kit, the kit resembled a tool box with very minimal medical items. The member of staff then left. We sat there dumbfounded. There was no member of medical staff to attend to our daughter, no-one helped us, we waited whilst trying to calm our girl down, a member of the public (American on holiday) who happened to be a nurse made herself known and took over - she literally was our guardian angel, with the basic kit she patched our daughter up. Several members of staff came over, looked and then left. No member of staff with any medical training on that island made themselves known at all whilst we were there, our daughters accident was "a cut" albeit a severe one (bled all over the beach) but there should have been a member of staff there who had medical training (even basic) i am thankful that she did not break a limb or anything more severe. She is permanently scarred from the accident and it has terrified her.
The excursion leader/staff member who was escorting our excursion popped over a few times but we saw no medic and filled out no accident paperwork, a Tui member of staff was on the beach (in a t-shirt) he never approached us. Nothing (to our knowledge) was ever recorded by Tui regarding her accident, our names were never taken, nothing filled in our signed - nothing.
Upon our return to the hotel our daughter saw a doctor who treated her wounds and gave us medication - we dealt with this via our insurance company.
I filled out medical/accident documentation with the doctor at the hotel and hotel concierge but heard nothing from our Tui representative - we have no idea if she knew it had happened from the excursion leader/staff member??? The day after the accident at 11am (the accident happened around 11am the prior day) i went to the rep to inform her of the accident - she had heard from the hotel concierge (but clearly didn't feel the need to contact us to see how our daughter was) i filled out a very basic report with the member of staff. They didn't contact us again during the rest of our holiday to check up etc.
Needless to say the remainder of our holiday was hopeless, our daughter couldn't walk unaided for two days as she couldn't put her foot down. She had nightmares. We had to put cling film all over het foot in order to keep out any germs/sand etc, no pool, antibiotics etc. This continued when we returned home in the UK, a second course of ongoing antibiotics were required due to her wound being infected, she couldn't wear shoes for three weeks (in January) and is permanently scarred.
The service from the rep when we got back was rubbish but i'm utterly horrified that we could go to this (very beautiful) island with a huge tour operator, have an accident and be left with no medical assistance, obviously there was no doctors surgery on "the island" but Tui must have some "standards" and "duty of care" regarding this kind of scenario?? What if someone had a serious life threatening medical problem whilst taking part in an excursion led by Tui to this location?
Should i forward this complain to ABTA, do Tui have a Health & Safety department that i can involve?
Was the child under their supervision or yours at the time?
Whilst the lack of first aid kit is concerning to a point (they had one, just not necessarily up to UK standards) it doesn't sound like the child was injured in the excursion providers care as you didn't mention any form of guided water activity...0 -
Tui don't know you anything it was an accident and they were not negligent. It could be argued she should have been wearing water shoes, my experience of tropical seas tells me that lots of coral is very sharp and liable to cause injury.3
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youaremysunshine_2 said:Hello, i am looking for some advice
We booked a holiday with Tui to the Caribbean for our family, five days in we went on an excursion booked through Tui, we opted for the "top option" for the excursion as our rep had "sold it to us" that this was the premium experience and that other excursions booked to by other local companies would not be as safe as this one, we would get there "top experience"
The excursion was via boat to a tropical island for a day of snorkelling and to spend time on the beach. It took around an hour to get there and sadly after 15minutes my eight year old daughter stood on coral/sharp rock in the sea and sliced open the side of her foot leaving a large piece of jagged skin and a profuse amount of blood (she really made a real mess of it!) i carried her to the sun loungers whilst my husband went for medical assistance, he came back along with a member of staff carrying a medical kit the staff member put down the kit, the kit resembled a tool box with very minimal medical items. The member of staff then left. We sat there dumbfounded. There was no member of medical staff to attend to our daughter, no-one helped us, we waited whilst trying to calm our girl down, a member of the public (American on holiday) who happened to be a nurse made herself known and took over - she literally was our guardian angel, with the basic kit she patched our daughter up. Several members of staff came over, looked and then left. No member of staff with any medical training on that island made themselves known at all whilst we were there, our daughters accident was "a cut" albeit a severe one (bled all over the beach) but there should have been a member of staff there who had medical training (even basic) i am thankful that she did not break a limb or anything more severe. She is permanently scarred from the accident and it has terrified her.
The excursion leader/staff member who was escorting our excursion popped over a few times but we saw no medic and filled out no accident paperwork, a Tui member of staff was on the beach (in a t-shirt) he never approached us. Nothing (to our knowledge) was ever recorded by Tui regarding her accident, our names were never taken, nothing filled in our signed - nothing.
Upon our return to the hotel our daughter saw a doctor who treated her wounds and gave us medication - we dealt with this via our insurance company.
I filled out medical/accident documentation with the doctor at the hotel and hotel concierge but heard nothing from our Tui representative - we have no idea if she knew it had happened from the excursion leader/staff member??? The day after the accident at 11am (the accident happened around 11am the prior day) i went to the rep to inform her of the accident - she had heard from the hotel concierge (but clearly didn't feel the need to contact us to see how our daughter was) i filled out a very basic report with the member of staff. They didn't contact us again during the rest of our holiday to check up etc.
Needless to say the remainder of our holiday was hopeless, our daughter couldn't walk unaided for two days as she couldn't put her foot down. She had nightmares. We had to put cling film all over het foot in order to keep out any germs/sand etc, no pool, antibiotics etc. This continued when we returned home in the UK, a second course of ongoing antibiotics were required due to her wound being infected, she couldn't wear shoes for three weeks (in January) and is permanently scarred.
The service from the rep when we got back was rubbish but i'm utterly horrified that we could go to this (very beautiful) island with a huge tour operator, have an accident and be left with no medical assistance, obviously there was no doctors surgery on "the island" but Tui must have some "standards" and "duty of care" regarding this kind of scenario?? What if someone had a serious life threatening medical problem whilst taking part in an excursion led by Tui to this location?
Should i forward this complain to ABTA, do Tui have a Health & Safety department that i can involve?In my experience, it's very common for tour operators to push their (usually very expensive) excursions on safety reasons and the people who've booked with their TO find out they're on the same boat or bus as people who've booked locally and paid much less.You mention 'staff members' and 'members of medical staff' quite a lot.Are you referring to TUI staff?Why didn't you approach the TUI staff member on the beach? And ask about the procedures for reporting an accident?What did the TUI rep say would happen when you filled in the accident report?How was the service you received from the rep (presumably back at the hotel) 'rubbish'?Have you had any communication with TUI since you returned home?Before approaching ABTA, I'd take a look at their remit to see if it covers your complaint.I'd doubt that TUI would have a 'Health & Safety department' that you can involve but I'd guess they have processes to safeguard their clients as much as possible.I think you would go through the normal TUI complaint channels.But - do keep your complaint concise, to-the-point and unemotional.I wouldn't include 'what-ifs' (e.g. breaking a limb) or permanent scarring.And - as has been asked up-thread - what do you want to happen?Are you looking for financial compensation?And if so - how much?0 -
Had this accident happened when your daughter was in a children's club being supervised by the holiday company's staff then you may have had some form of claim. However the accident happened while your daughter was in your care and it was your responsibility to ensure her wellbeing.
Unless the company claim that a fully trained first aider (and even they have their limitations) or local laws demand such a person be present on all excursions, then there has been no failing by the company. I would have expected the staff member who brought the first aid kit to have stayed, but they may have had no first aid knowledge and if you believed they should have stayed, you should have made this known to them at the time.
You were on a remote tiny Caribbean island, which lacks many facilities and in my opinion it would be unrealistic to expect a holiday company to provide the resources to cope with any sort of medical emergency on an excursion.
The accident didn't happen in the hotel or its grounds or while your daughter was in the care of hotel or holiday company employees. There was therefore no need for them to actually record it and it was not due to their negligence.
I would doubt complaining to the holiday company would result in anything more than a "money off your next holiday" voucher.If you are querying your Council Tax band would you please state whether you are in England, Scotland or Wales2 -
I'm dumbfounded why you or your husband didn't approach the Tui rep in the t shirt and ask for assistance.0
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The_Rainmaker said:Tui don't know you anything it was an accident and they were not negligent. It could be argued she should have been wearing water shoes, my experience of tropical seas tells me that lots of coral is very sharp and liable to cause injury.I would expect that to happen.Interesting to see if it actually happens.
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