Thread: mum who died after wading through filthy puddles on Thailand holiday

Joanne Cowburn, 47, from Eccles, suffered multi-organ failure in hospital after her illness baffled doctors.

A mum of three who had to walk through sewage-filled puddles on holiday in Thailand died within days of returning home.


Joanne Cowburn, 47, from Eccles, suffered multi-organ failure in hospital after her illness baffled doctors.


An inquest heard she had been forced to walk through dirty water containing sewage on the island of Ko Phi Phi a fortnight into the trip because of torrential rain.


Coroner John Pollard said it was not possible to say whether the infected water had made her sick but added that it was ‘more than likely the underlying cause’. He recorded an open verdict.


Mrs Cowburn, a support worker employed by Trafford Council for people with learning difficulties, had joined daughter Rachael near the end of a four-month tour of South East Asia.
After stays on several islands including Ko Samui, they flew to Ko Phi Phi.


There they had found very poor sanitation and exposed sewage on a ‘beautiful’ island devastated by the 2004 tsunami, Rachael told Stockport Coroners Court. On March 28, after heavy storms, they had to walk through a six-inch-deep puddle of water to get back to their apartment, after her mum had fallen and grazed her knee.


Ms Cowburn said they had no choice because the roads were so narrow, adding: “We didn’t want to because we knew it was pretty filthy water with sewage in it.”


They had to go through filthy water again tw
o days later during a walk around the island
.
Mrs Cowburn, of Peel Green Road in Barton, Eccles, began to feel ill the day after her return – texting a friend to say she had no strength.


She was unable to keep food or water down and visited a sun bed shop to ‘warm her insides up’.


The next day, after researching her symptoms online, she asked to be taken to Trafford General Hospital’s emergency department.


Doctors consulted infectious diseases experts at North Manchester General Hospital but could not find the cause of the former nursing home worker’s illness.


Dr Claire Robertson, an acute medicine clinician who treated Mrs Cowburn, told the inquest she had become overwhelmed by infection, with symptoms including swelling on her face and ankles, and breathlessness.


Mr Pollard said her medical treatment was entirely appropriate and concluded that she had died from multi-organ failure.


He said: “She had been in this place where she was eating different food and the temperature was different, but the really significant thing is that she walked through this infected water, this sewage.”

I give up on this fcuking country. They portray it as the 'Land of Smiles'. It should be the 'Land of Shite'.

I agree

Originally Posted by superman

I give up on this fcuking country. They portray it as the 'Land of Smiles'. It should be the 'Land of Shite'.

Originally Posted by ENT

I agree

see you

you did read the article? it happened just after the 2004 Tsunami, so lots of water about

and the cause was not really known, except poor medical care

In the 12 years I have lived here I go there one time, the only thing I remember about the place is the fuking flies so to me that tells me how bad the sewers are and the drainage

She may have cut her self in the water and waited a while before having it looked at. My uncle did that while clamming in the Delaware Bay. Nearly lost his arm, could have died.

Originally Posted by DrAndy

Originally Posted by superman

I give up on this fcuking country. They portray it as the 'Land of Smiles'. It should be the 'Land of Shite'.

Originally Posted by ENT

I agree

see you

you did read the article? it happened just after the 2004 Tsunami, so lots of water about

and the cause was not really known, except poor medical care

Was this year mate they just made a reference on how bad it got hit by the tsunami

Well travelling around the globo, as example, from a life time in clean Bergen in Norway to Mumbai in India for one who never did it or was not prepared for it, some bacteria that have no such prepared immunity in his system will fail to prevent disease...

Some ppl just should stay home or remain in very closed watched areas while far away !

Sorry for her, but the conditions in Phi Phi are as they are, and this is in Thailand many miles away from the place she is used with...Tropical rain, poverty and corruption makes those floods a near normal happening in this areas.

Just treat straight away any infections in tropical or not usual places, even small scratches, coz it can cost you a life !

RIP

There's a dazzling variety of bugs in Thailand. Rule #1 is SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION.

Rule #2 is DON'T SEEK IT FROM QUACK.

#2 is a bit harder.

Originally Posted by FarangRed

Mrs Cowburn, a support worker employed by Trafford Council for people with learning difficulties, had joined daughter Rachael near the end of a four-month tour of South East Asia.
After stays on several islands including Ko Samui, they flew to Ko Phi Phi.

Chopper? Pontoon plane?

Originally Posted by DrAndy

Originally Posted by superman

I give up on this fcuking country. They portray it as the 'Land of Smiles'. It should be the 'Land of Shite'.

Originally Posted by ENT

I agree

see you

you did read the article? it happened just after the 2004 Tsunami, so lots of water about

and the cause was not really known, except poor medical care

I was on Koh Samui when the storm struck end of March this year, sewage and all everywhere.

Originally Posted by DrAndy

Originally Posted by superman

I give up on this fcuking country. They portray it as the 'Land of Smiles'. It should be the 'Land of Shite'.

Originally Posted by ENT

I agree

see you

you did read the article? it happened just after the 2004 Tsunami, so lots of water about

and the cause was not really known, except poor medical care

You can't have read it Andy. This lady's holiday was in March this year.