Egypt: Daughter rejects E. coli as cause of British tourist deaths

Kelly Ormerod, the daughter of a British couple who died last month while on holiday in Egypt, said she doesn’t believe her parents died from an E. coli bacterial infection, the official cause released Wednesday by the Egyptian prosecutor’s office.
Ormerod dismissed the findings and told the BBC that a second post-mortem examination will be conducted in the United Kingdom. The bodies of her parents, John and Susan Cooper, were flown to the UK late last week.
They both died suddenly on August 21 at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in the popular Red Sea resort town of Hurghada. The hotel is owned by Deutsche Hospitality, based in Germany.
The Coopers were fine but fell ill without obvious medical cause, said Ormerod. She accompanied them on the trip arranged by the Thomas Cook travel agency, her mother’s employer in the town of Burnley.
They were among 300 Thomas Cook customers staying at the hotel, some of whom also reported illness. The company issued a statement following the release from the Egyptian authorities.
“We have not yet seen the full report and we will need time for our own experts to review it,” the company said. “We are deeply saddened by the tragic deaths of John and Susan Cooper. We will continue to offer every support to their daughter Kelly and the rest of their family.”
Image: Steigenberger Hotels