Bedbugs are a real problem. In recent years, and even more so in recent months, its little pests have spread exponentially. And getting rid of them is no easy task. Like Cristina Cordula, who has been going through a real ordeal since June 2023, some are ready to do anything to eradicate bedbugs… even if it means using dangerous chemicals. This is apparently what the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel, located in Hurghada, Egypt, has done. On August 20, 2018, the establishment disinfected a room following a bedbug infestation. The client, a German tourist who had been allocated this room, was relocated. But not the occupants of the next room, John and Susan Cooper. The two Britons, aged 69 and 63 respectively, are died the next day. At the time, local authorities spoke of a death “of natural causes” – due to a “cardiac and respiratory failure” – from the Associated Press agency. But more than five years after the events, in November 2023, the BBC made some more than disturbing revelations.
The two sixty-year-olds died of carbon monoxide “poisoning”
Our colleagues across the Channel had access to an investigation report, which reports possible exposure to “infectious biological agents or toxic chemicals”which would be the real cause of the couple’s death. The forensic pathologist James Adeley also concluded that “poisoning”. Following a three-day inquest hearing, he ruled that the deaths of John and Susan Cooper had been “caused by carbon monoxide poisoning resulting from inhalation of vapors from pesticide spraying containing dichloromethane”. Indeed, Lambda, the insecticide product used by the hotel, is often diluted with dichloromethane (also called methylene chloride), a toxic organic compound that the human body transforms into carbon monoxide. The German tourist who owned the disinfected room explained that the hotel staff had sprayed three or four liters of insecticide before “seal” the door with adhesive tape. “We cannot say that the work was very professional”he commented to the BBC.
It was the couple’s daughter, Kelly Ormerod – who came with them on vacation, accompanied by her three children – who found them seriously ill in their room the next day. John Cooper died at the hotel, while Susan Cooper breathed her last in hospital a few hours later. According to the findings of the forensic doctor, the medical treatment of the sixty-year-old was “totally insufficient” : she was first taken to a hotel clinic, before an ambulance was called, which delayed her arrival at the hospital for four hours. “Having to relive all of this at the inquest was painful, but it was something we had to do for mum and dad.”, declared Kelly Ormerod at the end of the hearing. Already at the time, the couple’s daughter did not believe in the thesis of a death from natural causes, and mentioned circumstances “suspicious”. Now, she explains, on behalf of her family, “take some small comfort from at least having the answers we deserve.”