Husband and wife enjoying ‘brilliant’ holiday in Egypt died of carbon monoxide poisoning after room next door was fumigated for bedbugs – as their heartbroken daughter says tragedy ‘should never have happened’

• John Cooper, 69, and his wife, Susan, 63, from Burnley, died on August 21, 2018
• They became ill while staying at Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada 

A British couple who fell suddenly ill in their hotel room at a resort in Egypt died from carbon monoxide poisoning after the room next door was sprayed with pesticide to kill bed bugs, a coroner ruled today.

John Cooper, 69, and his wife, Susan, 63, from Burnley, Lancashire, had been enjoying a ‘brilliant’ holiday while staying at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, the inquest into their deaths heard.

Kelly Ormerod, the Coopers’ daughter, who described her parents as fit and healthy for their age, had been on holiday with them, their three grandchildren and family friends.

But around lunchtime on the eighth day into their holiday the room next door to the Coopers, which had an adjoining door which was kept locked, was fumigated with pesticide, known as Lambda, for a bed bug infestation.

The pesticide was diluted with dichloromethane – a chemical that creates carbon monoxide – and the room was then sealed with masking tape around the door, the inquest heard.

John Cooper, 69, and his wife Susan, 63, died from carbon monoxide poisoning in August 2018

Hours later the couple returned to their room next door for the night. Their granddaughter Molly, 12, who was staying on a single bed in the couple’s room, began to feel ill, and in the early hours Mr Cooper escorted her to the room of Ms Ormerod, her mother.

The following morning Ms Ormerod went knocking after her parents failed to come down to breakfast.

She found both her father, a builder, and mother, a cashier in a Thomas Cook bureau de change, seriously ill. Her father was declared dead in the room and her mother hours later in hospital.

Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire sitting at Preston Coroner’s Court, ruled that the deaths on August 21, 2018 were caused by the spraying of the pesticide containing the chemical, dichloromethane, in the adjoining room and the couple then inhaling the vapour resulting in their deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning.

He said the spraying had created sufficient vapour to pass under the adjoining door and poison the couple.

After the hearing, Ms Ormerod told reporters: ‘Our family still struggle to comprehend what we went through that day and feel like it should never have happened. The last few years have been the most traumatic time for all of us.’ 

Kelly Ormerod, the Coopers’ daughter, is pictured outside Preston Coroner’s Court today

Earlier, the three-day inquest heard from toxicology expert Professor Robert Chilcott.

The expert told the hearing that carbon monoxide was present in the blood samples from the bodies of the couple but he could not be certain of the levels.

However, he said the levels were sufficient to suggest ‘severe exposure’ to carbon monoxide.

Professor Chilcott suggested in less developed countries the pesticide Lambda is sometimes diluted with another substance, dichloromethane, which causes the body to metabolise or ingest carbon monoxide.

He added: ‘I would say a ten-hour exposure duration, in theory, would be sufficient to cause carbon monoxide poisoning.’

Dr Adeley asked about the toxicity of dichloromethane, compared with other substances, adding, ‘a quick brush with Novichok and you are dead’.

He asked: ‘Is the volume of spray you would be using enough to create carbon monoxide?’

The couple died during their stay at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada, Egypt

Professor Chilcott replied: ‘In theory, yes. There are occupational limits about how much you are able to inhale.’

He said the rules in the UK are 100 parts per million over an eight-hour exposure.

He said spraying it as in the hotel room it would ‘rapidly exceed’ the UK exposure limits.

Home Office pathologist Dr Charles Wilson gave a cause of death for Mr Cooper as carbon monoxide toxicity and heart disease and for Mrs Cooper, carbon monoxide toxicity.

Dr Wilson said: ‘What you have here is a situation whereby the trajectory of the Coopers’ deaths, the circumstances surrounding it, how that evolved is not compatible with natural disease.

‘It is typical of something in the environment and carbon monoxide is a common environmental toxin. It shows lots of features I would expect to see in carbon monoxide poisoning.

‘It’s exactly what I would expect to see in people poisoned by carbon monoxide.’

Kelly Ormerod makes a statement to the media outside Preston Coroner’s Court today

Dr Wilson added that someone with cardiovascular disease, like Mr Cooper, would find it more difficult to withstand carbon monoxide poisoning.

Dr Nick Gent, a former senior medical adviser to Public Health England, said he agreed on the presence of carbon monoxide in the Coopers’ blood.

But he described the theory of dichloromethane as the source an ‘interesting hypothesis’.

Dr Adeley asked: ‘In terms of the source of the carbon monoxide. Where has it come from?’

Dr Gent replied: ‘I have no idea sir. I have looked at the documentation to identify the likely or even possible source.’

Dr Adeley continued: ‘We are down to Sherlock Holmes, once you have excluded everything else, what you have left is the truth.’

Dr Gent said: ‘I can’t help further with the source of carbon monoxide. I can’t go further on the source without being able to re-examine the premises at the time the deaths occurred.’

John and Susan Cooper were described during the inquest as fit and healthy for their age

Earlier Ms Ormerod, the Coopers’ daughter and a civil servant with HMRC, described her parents as fit and healthy for their age and said they had been enjoying a ‘brilliant’ holiday with her, their three grandchildren and family friends, after leaving the UK on August 13, 2018.

Her mother had been to the same hotel in April that year and described it as ‘fabulous’, and decided to go back with the whole family.

On the evening of August 20 they all went to the hotel restaurant and a bar, before retiring for the evening.

Ms Ormerod’s daughter, Molly, then aged 12, was staying on a single bed in her grandparents’ room, which she said had a ‘yeasty smell’. 

But at 1am Mr Cooper rang to say she was feeling a little unwell and he escorted his granddaughter to her mother’s room in an upper floor.

The next morning, Mr and Mrs Cooper failed to emerge for breakfast, so Ms Ormerod went to their ground floor room, 5107, to discover the pair were seriously ill.

Susan Cooper had been to the same hotel, the Steigenberger Aqua Magic, in April that year

Ms Ormerod said her father came to the door saying: ‘I really don’t feel very well,’ with him retching and screwing his face up.

‘He just literally slumped and sat on the corner of the bed and said: ‘I’m really not well,’ Ms Ormerod told the hearing.

She said her mother was in bed, ‘groaning’, with vomit in her hair and around the room, where she noticed a strange ‘heavy’ smell.

Two doctors were summoned but they were in ‘panic mode’, Ms Ormerod said, as her parents further deteriorated and her father struggled to breathe.

Tearfully, Ms Ormerod added: ‘His eyes kind of… a glazed, staring look.’

CPR was attempted but Mr Cooper was declared dead on the hotel room floor and his wife was taken to a clinic at the hotel where she became ‘super agitated’ and delirious, the inquest heard.

Kelly Ormerod, the Coopers’ daughter, is pictured with her mother Susan Cooper

Mrs Cooper was taken to hospital by ambulance but declared dead at 4.12pm.

Both were returned to the UK in sealed, zinc-lined coffins, the inquest heard.

A statement was also read from Dominik Bibi, a truck despatcher from Germany, who arrived with seven family members in the early hours of August 20.

Mr Bibi said his mother-in-law, who used a wheelchair, was booked to stay in room 5106, the ground-floor room next to the Cooper’s room.

His statement added: ‘On entering I immediately noticed a funny smell, like that of mould or damp. There was a lot of bed bugs in the bed and under it.’

He said a cleaner and night manager came and apologised and his mother-in-law took his and his wife’s room, further down the corridor at 5102.

Hours later around lunchtime he was outside her room when he saw three men, two wearing the hotel uniform and the other with a two or three litre pesticide canister he assumed being used to get rid of the bed bugs.

Kelly Ormerod, the Coopers’ daughter, arrives at Preston Coroner’s Court this morning

After five or 10 minutes they left the room and used masking tape to tape up around the door and seal the room.

‘I would not say the job was very professional,’ Mr Bibi’s statement continued.

He said that day, the air conditioning in the hotel was not working and a cleaner told the family the hotel was undertaking maintenance on the system.

He said he himself and other members of his family were unwell, but he expected that during a holiday in Egypt.

The inquest, five years after the deaths, also heard of multiple, repeated attempts to obtain more documents and information from the authorities in Egypt despite numerous requests from the Foreign Office.

Coroner Dr Adeley said Mr Cooper’s illness and death was rapid, but described the medical treatment provided for Mrs Cooper as ‘utterly insufficient’ after she was taken to a clinic in the hotel before an ambulance was called, creating a delay of four hours before she got to hospital.

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