HOLIDAY HELL

Patrick Connelly, 63, and his wife Anne, 61, from Bentinck Street, were rushed to hospital just days after arriving in the sunshine resort of Puerto de Carmen.

They had inhaled lethal amounts of carbon monoxide gas which had leaked from a boiler in their apartment.

After spending almost two weeks in intensive care in Lanzarote, they flew home by air ambulance in a 13 hour ordeal, passing through four separate airports.

Doctors administered oxygen throughout their flight, and once the couple landed in Manchester, they were taken by ambulance to Halton Hospital.

Patrick spent a week in hospital and was discharged last month, but his wife Anne is still in a poorly condition and is expected to be detained for at least another fortnight.

Retired Patrick paid almost £700 for the two week trip through Holidays Direct in Liverpool, and he now says he is considering taking legal action against the tour company.

When he arrived with his wife Anne, who has problems walking, they found their apartment was on the third floor and asked to be moved to another complex.

The hotel manager found them a temporary room on the ground floor at La Lagunetta.

Two days later, their travel rep arranged for them to move to another complex in the same resort, Las Morales.

Patrick says that when they arrived at Las Morales, the rep explained that the apartment had not been used for some time.

The couple unpacked their cases and settled down but Patrick, who suffers from asthma, said he woke up in the middle of the night, gasping for breath.

He said: "As the morning went on my condition got worse, but, because we couldn't smell any gas, we didn't know it was carbon monoxide we were inhaling.

"I knew something was wrong, so I told the manager I thought I had been inhaling toxic fumes and he just told us to open the windows. I had to go back and ask him again to get the gas checked.

"It turned out that the gas was coming from a water boiler which had a faulty flue, but, at the time, the gas fitter came out, spent ten minutes looking at the boiler and gave it the all clear.

"When we went back in the room, we found £300 in Spanish currency had gone missing from Anne's holdall, but, by then a plumber, fitter and two cleaners had all been in there so there was nothing we could do."

But that was just the begining of their ordeal. Anne was so concerned about her husband's health that she begged the rep to take him to hospital.

Patrick said: "By the time I saw a doctor, my condition was so bad that he asked me if I had been working in a chemical environment because I had inhaled so much of the toxic substance.

"I was rushed straight into intensive care. I can't remember a lot of what happened, but I was on oxygen and ventilin for a week, then spent a second week in the recovery suite."

But if it hadn't been for Patrick's asthma, the effects of the fumes could have killed them.

Anne was moved to another hotel after Patrick was admitted, then she was rushed to hospital three days later, with a suspected chest infection, after she experienced breathing difficulties.

She spent almost two weeks in intensive care in Lanzarote, then three weeks in Halton, and doctors say it will be at least another two weeks until she is well enough to go home.

Speaking to the World this week, Patrick said: "It has been harder for her to recover because she wasn't treated straight away, and she has diabetes.

"It does look like she'll have breathing problems in future, but at least I know she's going to pull through, which is a tremendous relief.

"We've booked with Direct Holidays for the last ten years, and out of ten holidays, only one of them has gone wrong. But I've got to warn other people about this because it may well have been our last."

Adam Morrison, spokesman for Direct Holidays said: "We received a letter from Mr Connelly yesterday and we are taking his case very seriously.

"We have sent a senior contract manager over to the resort to launch an investigation.

"This is a serious incident and our manager will be liaising with staff in Lanzarote. We are doing everything we can to investigate this incident."

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