Family vacations are supposed to be a time to connect with your closest loved ones through the joy of experiencing something new together. But traveling as a family means making a lot of preparations and doing a ton of research. As a former “free spirit,” I used to pack a bag with a few essentials and wing it, but as a mom I sit and read every review on a hotel, I plot out distance and timing, and I try to anticipate every “what if” to ensure we all have a good time. There are some things, however, you just cannot anticipate.
For a family from Germany on vacation in Turkey, they never could have imagined that their family vacation would have a fatal outcome. Mom Cigdem Bocek, 27, dad Servet, 38, and their two children, Kadir Muhammet, 6, and Masal, 3, all fell ill while staying at a hotel, according to The Mirror.
Shortly afterward, according to the Irish Star, the family hailed a taxi and Servet asked the driver to take them to the nearest hospital. During the ride, Masal was repeatedly vomiting and the mom was unconscious, leaning against the window. The mother and her two children died within hours of arrival, while Servet battled for six days before succumbing to his illness.
Footage obtained by the Hindustan Times shows the family riding in the cab to the hospital and all walking into the hospital’s waiting room.
Turkish police originally thought the family contracted food poisoning from local food vendors. However, when two more tourists staying at the same hotel as the family fell ill, the case took a turn. It led to authorities arresting 11 individuals including staff from the Harbour Suites Old City Hotel, according to the Irish Star. It’s now believed that aluminum phosphide, which was used to treat bedbug infestations on the ground floor, made its way into the family’s upper floor room via a bathroom vent. The investigation has revealed at least one of the employees doing the pest control was not certified to do the treatment.
Now Mustafa Celik, the grief-stricken father of Cigdem and the children’s grandfather who was expecting a visit from his family in his home of Istanbul, is vowing to file complaints against those at fault and demanded the harshest possible sentences for anyone found guilty.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, issued a statement that read, “Our security forces and prosecutors will lead the necessary investigations to determine the cause of these deaths.”
