A Burnley woman, whose parents died on an £8,500 family holiday when a bed-bug killing pesticide was sprayed near their hotel room, takes a scoop of their ashes on every trip to spread them all over the world.
Kelly Ormerod, 46, went on a two-week annual family holiday in August 2018 to Hurghada, Egypt, with her parents, three children and family friends.
Five days into their trip, her mum and dad, Susan, 63, and John Cooper, 69, fell ill while in their room at a five-star all-inclusive hotel, after a next door room had been fumigated.
The couple, who had been married for 40 years, from Burnley, were poisoned overnight until Kelly found them in bed the next morning ''surrounded by pools of vomit''.
Susan was taken to Aseel Medical Care Hospital, in Hurghada, for tests two hours after John was given CPR, and then died on the hotel room floor.
The couple died just four hours apart on 21 August, 2018.
After a five year wait, Kelly and her family have finally been given ''closure'' after an inquest hearing, during which Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire, ruled the deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning, as a result of inhaling the vapour from spraying the pesticide which contained dichloromethane.
During his concluding remarks, he said their family had gone through a "truly terrible experience" as they watched their loved ones pass away.
Kelly and her three children now take a ''scoop'' of their grandparents ashes on every holiday they take and scatter them in the sea to ''feel closer to them''.
Kelly, a civil servant, said: "I've been going on annual holidays with my parents for as long as I can remember.
"Throughout my whole life, we've made some amazing memories and I will cherish these forever.
"They were the most loving parents and grandparents, and there will always be a big hole in my heart.
"As soon as my dad opened the door, I immediately felt anxious and worried as to why they looked they way they did.
"I still suffer from the trauma of seeing my parents in such a dreadful way and it was, without a doubt, the worst day of my life."
The family had been enjoying a "lovely" £8,500 holiday while staying at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in the Red Sea resort.
John and Susan had previously visited the hotel for a week in April 2018 and had ''fallen in love with it''.
Mum-of-three Kelly said: "My parents loved everything about the hotel when they went on holiday there in April.
"They were so excited to share the experience with us.
"They loved the friendly atmosphere, the cleanness and the quality of food for a package holiday."
John, a builder, and Susan, a foreign exchange advisor, had been sharing a room with their now 18-year-old granddaughter Molly, until a ''disgusting smell'' prompted her to swap rooms during the night.
Kelly said: "I thought Molly had just eaten something funny.
"She looked peaky, but she said the smell of my mum and dad's room was making her feel sick.
"Dad was absolutely fine, and he spoke about how lovely his night was.
"I thanked him for bringing Molly to me, kissed him goodnight and he walked back up to his room to go to sleep."
Around 8.30am the next day, Kelly noticed that her parents weren't on the sun loungers which sparked an "unusual" feeling.
After banging loudly on her parent's hotel door at around 10.30am, John emerged wearing a towel wrapped around his waist and was "incredibly unsteady on his feet".
Kelly said: "As soon as he opened the door, I could smell vomit and he was slurring his words.
"He told me that they were both feeling rotten, but as he walked over to the single bed, it was like watching a bouncy ball.
"He was walking in a zig-zag shape, pushing himself off of the walls.
''If it was 3am, I would of thought he's just had too much to drink.
"My mum was spread-eagle in the double bed, and she was groaning in pain.
"But it was first thing in the morning, and my mum and dad are always on the sun loungers early so I knew it wasn't that.
"My mum was also covered in vomit, it was all in her hairline."
John had asked Kelly to go to the local pharmacy to get some medication for their sickness but she felt uneasy and instead called family friend, Louise Clayton, 58, a sales advisor, to come and check on them.
Louise also became concerned and the two women asked for a doctor at the hotel's reception, who promised a one would be sent over.
After the "longest" hour, Kelly witnessed her parents deteriorating "minute by minute" before the doctor arrived.
She said: "It took an hour for the doctor to arrive, it was awful.
"Both my parents breathing had changed and they couldn't support their own body weight so they were lying down the entire time.
"The doctor called for a second medical professional and it was just chaos.
"Dad wasn't moving, he wasn't talking, he was just frozen.
"So the doctors focused on him first, taking his blood pressure, as although my mum wasn't talking, she was groaning in pain so we knew she was still present to an extent."
After 45 minutes, and 20 attempts to cannulate John, his condition took a turn for the worse.
Despite the medics efforts, due to his previous heart conditions, John's heartrate deteriorated and he rapidly went into cardiac arrest.
The doctor did CPR but John died shortly afterwards on the floor of his hotel room and the ambulance, that had just arrived, was turned away by hotel staff.
Kelly said: "I fell into a state of shock.
"His eyes we were wide open so I went over to his body, kissed his forehead and closed his eyes.
"Everything had happened so fast, and my head was exploding not knowing why or how this happened.
"I begged my mum to stay with me and to get better.
"I couldn't lose my mum too."
After a ''painful'' two-hour wait, another ambulance came to collect Kelly's mother - whose condition was by then deteriorating rapidly.
She was taken to Aseel Medical Care Hospital where she died two-and-a-half hours after arriving.
Kelly said: "I had some hope that my mum would be OK as she was being taken to hospital.
"But when I arrived there, the doctors thought they had done a suicide pact.
"It was absolutely devastating because I knew my parents wouldn't of committed suicide.
"But they couldn't give me answers about why they'd died.
"Instead, they told me to go back to the hotel and sort it out with them."
After a further five ''gruelling days'', Kelly and her children were able to fly back home to the UK.
Kelly said: "It took a few weeks to get my parents bodies to the UK and we were told they were in a bad state so it was best not to see them.
"We held their funeral in mid-September 2018 and it was an emotional but beautiful celebration of their life."
Three years later, an Egyptian post-mortem concluded that E.coli was responsible for the couple's death.
After Kelly challenged the Egyptian's post-mortem conclusion, the home office in the UK declared that her parents died of carbon monoxide poisoning but it has taken five years to pinpoint the source.
During the three-day inquest, the started on 7 November, 2023, Prof Robert Chilcott, a toxicology expert, told the hearing that in less developed countries the pesticide Lambda was sometimes diluted with dichloromethane, which causes the body to metabolise or ingest carbon monoxide.
The Home Office pathologist Dr Charles Wilson told the hearing the Coopers’ hotel room had not been secured and it would be “inconceivable” such measures would not be taken in the event of a double death in a hotel in the UK.
Kelly said: "The hotel room next door to my parents was being fumigated for bed bugs and the hotel failed to mask up the adjoining door.
"While I'm still in so much pain over the thought that this could of been prevented, I'm glad we finally have the answers that we've waited five years for.
"I was extremely grateful for the coroner as his character and knowledge enabled us to get the answers.
"It has been the most traumatic five years of our lives, and our family is broken without them.
"We've been given closure in the sense that we now know how has happened, but I don’t feel any better because it should never of happened in the first place.
"My parents were active, bubbly and personable, and they were the most loveable people."
Kelly and her three children now take a scoop of her parents ashes on every annual holiday they go on.
She said: "If my parent's hadn't passed away, they'd still be coming on our yearly family holidays.
"We take scoops of their ashes, in little jars, wherever we go, and we scatter them in the sea so it feels like they are here with us.
"We talk about them every day, and we all miss them unconditionally."
A representative for Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel said: "We would like to express our sincere condolences to the family for their loss, our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.
"We want to inform that the hotel underwent thorough inspections conducted by reputable organizations such as the Egyptian Ministry, Thomas Cook, Preverisk, and Checkpoint.
"These inspections specifically focused on health and safety as well as hygiene standards at our establishment.
"Moreover, the case has been closed by the Egyptian prosecutor in Egypt after a full investigation having found no issue of concern within the hotel likely to have caused the deaths."
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