Family ‘never want to go on holiday again’ as suspected food poisoning leaves baby on IV drip

A mother of three has said a £3,700 trip to Turkey left her family “traumatised” and her children “never want to go on holiday again” after suspected food poisoning left them all bedbound and her baby on an IV drip in hospital.

Holly Parkin, 27, from Dagenham, east London, went to Turkey in September 2023 with her partner, Matthew Morris, 25, and their children Kaidan, four, and Mireya-Grace, one, and Holly’s child from another relationship, eight-year-old Amelia.

Their all-inclusive eight-day holiday, which cost a total of £3,777.21, took a turn for the worse after Holly said her partner and her children fell ill with suspected food poisoning on their second full day at the five-star Granada Luxury Belek Hotel.

Holly said the whole family except herself were then left bedbound by diarrhoea and vomiting for around five days – leaving Amelia and Kaidan, who both have autism, struggling to come to terms with the worry of seeing their relatives in such a “heartbreaking” situation.

Returning to the UK a day earlier than planned, Holly said her partner started to recover but her children were unwell for another 15 days and had to be taken to hospital via an ambulance – where her youngest was put on an IV drip.

Holly said she spoke to several other families who were at the hotel at the same time as her and who also reported they were feeling unwell and she said she was invited to a WhatsApp group chat called “Granada Sickness” – where other guests have been sharing their experiences about getting ill at the resort.

Comments and posts on Facebook showed other holidaymakers complaining of experiencing the same symptoms while staying at the same hotel.

The trip was booked through Loveholidays, which said it was “very sorry” to the family for their experience, and it has contacted Holly to request medical documentation to support her claim for compensation.

Holly said she cannot provide medical documentation because although doctors told her the condition was likely food poisoning, blood and stool tests taken by the children were inconclusive so they could not provide documentation to confirm this.

“It was horrible and heartbreaking, they were crying and, even now, they are sort of traumatised from the experience in the sense…