A British couple died of carbon monoxide poisoning while vacationing at a luxury resort in Egypt when the next room was sprayed with pesticide to kill bed bugs, a medical examiner has concluded.
John and Susan Cooper were staying at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic hotel in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada in August 2018 when the room next to theirs was sprayed with a pesticide called 'Lambda' to eradicate an outbreak of bed bugs, British media outlet PA Media reported.
In some countries, this pesticide is diluted with the substance dichloromethane, which causes the body to metabolize or ingest carbon monoxide.
The fumigated room, which was sealed with duct tape around the door, was connected to hers with an adjoining door, according to local media.
The couple returned to their room for the night, but their daughter found them seriously ill the next day. John Cooper, 69, was pronounced dead in the room, while his wife Susan, 63, died hours later at the hospital.
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James Adelely, the coroner of the English county of Lancashire, ruled that the deaths were due to carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of inhaling the vapor from the spray of the pesticide, which contained dichloromethane, he said.
"Stumbling around like he's drunk 10 glasses of beer"
Kelly Ormerod, the couple's daughter, who was on vacation with her parents at the time, said in a statement following the investigation: "To this day, our family struggles to understand what happened. It should never have been allowed to happen."
"Nothing would compensate for the pain and loss we felt since that day. The last few years have been very traumatic and emotional for everyone involved," he said.
Ormerod, who is a tax official, recounted the chaos that ensued when she arrived at her parents' room and tried to revive them.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said his father, who liked sports and was in good health, answered the door but was "staggering and stumbling... like he'd drunk 10 glasses of beer."
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His mother was lying on the bed "moaning." They both looked very sick and couldn't dress themselves, he said.
She also said she noticed an "acetate" smell in the room, which she found odd because her mother had fake nails and didn't use nail polish.
Soon after, two doctors arrived who "had no idea what was going on," he said.
At the time of the Coopers' deaths, Egyptian authorities said it was the "normal death of an elderly Englishman and his wife" due to heart failure.
However, at the pre-inquest hearing, held in 2019, an expert report was heard suggesting that the couple's death was not due to radiation, natural causes, carbon monoxide, or food poisoning, of which there had been an increase in cases at the hotel that summer.
With information from CNN, Daily Mail and PA Media