The wife of a British man who died of sepsis during a trip to Bulgaria to celebrate their wedding anniversary says she is living a nightmare.
Daniel Bowman, 32, was rushed to hospital when he started suffering stomach pains and vomiting blood a week into his two-week break with wife Kelly.
He went to a local clinic before being moved to hospital where he was diagnosed with sepsis and was put on life support in an induced coma.
Daniel was due to be flown home to Doncaster last Thursday after his family fund-raised to pay for a private medical repatriation air ambulance.
Before he could take off however he died alone in intensive care as Kelly was not allowed to be with him.
Speaking from Bulgaria, Kelly said: "There are no words that I can use right now to describe how I feel.
"This is like the worst nightmare and I am never ever waking up from it.
"It was our wedding anniversary on September 7 and I went to see Daniel in intensive care, I held his hand, read his anniversary card to him and sang our wedding song.
“This pain is indescribable. He is my best friend, my soulmate and the best husband in the world.”
The family has previous history with sepsis, a fatal blood condition, as it killed Daniel’s aunt in 2005.
Tragically, they were not informed of his death for another seven hours.
Another aunt, 50-year-old Sam Bowman, added: “For us to know we've lost one member of the family to sepsis, we were expecting it again.
"For my mum and dad it's like it's coming back to haunt them. Nobody expects to bury their children, let alone their grandchildren.
"Daniel and Kelly had been together 10 years, they flew out to celebrate their third wedding anniversary. She's sat in ICU reading out their anniversary cards.
"On their anniversary Kelly went to see him - she was holding his hands and singing him songs but she was told to leave after an hour.
"She told the hospital it was their anniversary and asked if she could stay. They said no.
"When Kelly went to see him after he'd died she said they hadn't even cleaned his face.
"He had equipment marks on his face and his wife had to clean him up.
"You hear about those crazy stories in magazines that are a nightmare, and now we're living it.
"You never think it'll happen to you."
The family say they must pay £34,000 medical bills and accommodation after insurance company Admiral refused to help.
Before he died, an Admiral spokesman said: "We appreciate this is distressing time for Mr Bowman and his family and can assure them we are treating it as a matter of urgency.
"We have been in regular contact with our medical emergency provider who have been liaising with the medical facility in Bulgaria and Mr Bowman's wife.
"In all cases where medically recommended we will only return customers home when it is medically safe to do so to avoid any risks of complications whilst being transported.”
"We will continue to keep the family informed on progress, but we cannot comment any further at this stage."
