Mum dies after eating uncooked chicken on holiday
A mum has died on holiday after she contracted food poisoning expected to have come from a few mouthfuls of uncooked chicken.
Natalie Rawnsley, 37, was visiting the Greek island of Corfu with her husband and two children when a bout of gastro caused blood clots to form throughout her body last August.
The Hertfordshire Mercury reports the English mum of two was fit and healthy but she rapidly deteriorated 36 hours after dining at a hotel restaurant.
Mrs Rawnsley’s husband Stewart told the Westminster Coroner’s Court the family ate dinner at a hotel buffet during their second week on holidays.
He said the hotel had two or three restaurants, and at the buffet he and his sons had pasta, bread and sausages while Mrs Rawnsley had a meal of chicken, salad, prawns and vegetables.
“We were already at the table when Natalie came back with her food. Natalie started to eat hers and as she cut the chicken the chicken oozed red blood to which point I commented it looked bloody,” he told the inquest into her death.
“She got up took it back replaced the chicken with a difference piece and came back and ate it.
“She had a few mouthfuls of the other piece of chicken.”
The Hertfordshire Mercury reports Mr Rawnsley told the coroner’s court his wife started vomiting at 3am the next morning. She was diagnosed with gastro and Mr Rawnsley and his sons were advised to leave her so they did not catch the virus.
Mr Rawnsley came back to the room to check on his wife and sought a second opinion from a doctor as she was still ill. She was taken to a medical centre near the hotel before being transported to Corfu hospital.
That night the husband was told to rush to the hospital, where he found his wife surrounded by a number of people.
“She was fully awake and aware and happy to see me, but obviously distressed and concerned,” Mr Rawnsley told the court.
“There was pain in her legs and she also had a number of red blotches all over her.”
The Hertfordshire Mercury reports the mother’s condition deteriorated and she died after her heart became weaker.
Infections expert Professor Sebastien Lucas told the inquest Mrs Rawnsley’s sickness turned deadly because she “had the wrong genes”.
“Assuming it is an E.Coli infection – coming from uncooked chicken this seems like a very reasonable theory,” he said.
“The point I also made in my report is how it escalates.
“There’s a tipping point when it starts producing [disseminated intravascular coagulation]. By definition, once it starts doing that, you are doomed.”
The coroner ruled E-Coli infection the cause of death.
