A British woman claims she thought she was going to die after becoming so violently ill that she ended up in hospital during a TUI holiday "from hell".
Nicky Alan said that she was left to crawl through her own vomit and blood in a hotel room for seven days while on a luxury holiday to the Hotel Riu Palace Santa Maria, in Cape Verde.
She had booked the trip with her partner Darren to celebrate him getting the all-clear after a battle with cancer in May, Essex Live reports.
But the getaway was far from relaxing and she now says it was the "worst place I've been to in my life".
The 52-year-old took to TikTok to share her experience after saying she struggled to get an apology or refund from the hotel or travel agent TUI, who she booked the trip through.
Nicky and Darren arrived in Cape Verde on May 10 and ate at the hotel buffet upon their arrival, but Nicky noticed that the pork she was eating was "really chewy" and "quite cold", claiming that she realised it was "raw inside" after spitting it out.
Within a few hours, Nicky says she became ill as she started "violently projectile vomiting" and continued to feel unwell after suffering from diarrhoea throughout the night.
She encouraged Darren to go out on a diving trip that he had planned but then described that things took a turn for the worse.
She said: "I started vomiting so severely that it got stuck in my throat,
"So I started choking, and so I had to literally put things down my throat to try and get my airways free and that really, really panicked me."
Nicky said that she tried phoning the hotel reception for staff but that their English wasn't good enough to understand and no one came to help.
When Darren returned to the hotel he also become "violently ill" and was "shaking on the floor" with Nicky.
The couple claim that they continued to ring for help, but were left "abandoned" in their room even when they "begged" to be sent to a hospital.
Detailing more of the harrowing experience, Nicky said: "We ran out of water. We were cleaning up our own faeces and vomit because the cleaners refused to come in."
She also said: "Blood started to come out of both orifices and that really scared me.
"At one point Darren was delirious and he was just mumbling and talking rubbish and I thought we're gonna die here. We're gonna die. We ran out of water and toilet roll. You could imagine how dirty and filthy it was. We had nothing to mop up what was happening in the beds and toilet. And for a week, seven days, we were left in the room with no help whatsoever."
After a week Nicky and Darren managed to drag themselves to hospital where she claims staff put them on drips of unknown medication "without asking about allergies or medical history".
Nicky then said that her IV blew in her veins so she suffered a swollen hand for the rest of the trip and that they had to fork out £400 for the treatment.
After getting back to the hotel Nicky "lost it" with a member of staff and says the hotel offered her a bottle of champagne and a free meal at one of its best restaurants.
The couple were also finally moved into a new room and said that a team of cleaners were entering the old room in "hazmat suits" after they left.
They then spent the rest of the holiday in their room recovering and when they returned to the UK Nicky went to hospital and claims she then underwent a further three weeks of treatment for a distended bowl and a parasite in her gut from the raw pork.
She then came down with Covid-19 and believes that she was in bed for two months with the illness because of her immune system being weakened by the ordeal in Cape Verde.
Nicky says she made attempts to contact TUI for a refund and compensation but hasn't had a satisfactory response — only being offered half the cost of the holiday.
She's continued to make attempts to raise awareness of her ordeal on TikTok, saying: "I've never been treated so badly. I feared for my life and for Darren's, this needs to stop now."
A spokesperson for TUI said: "We’re concerned to hear about Ms Alan’s experience as we take these matters very seriously.
"We’re in contact with Ms Alan about her claims and would like to reassure customers that we regularly audit all of our properties in regards to health and safety. Superior cleaning measures on top of already stringent protocols have been implemented at the hotel to ensure that health and hygiene levels are maintained."
Law firm Irwin Mitchell have said that they are currently working on a group lawsuit with over 80 people who visited the Hotel Rui Palace Santa Maria and also fell ill.
Jennifer Hodgson, specialist lawyer at the firm, said: "Understandably, those we represent have many questions about how they fell ill, while many of the group have queried why they weren’t informed of illness at the hotel, before they arrived at the resort.
"We’re determined to establish the answers our clients deserve and to support all of them following what has been a terrible experience. If during the course of our investigations any issues are identified, it’s vital that lessons are learned to ensure that other travellers aren’t left with ruined holidays and potential long-term illnesses."
