British mum, 37, died after eating one mouthful of uncooked chicken while on holiday in Corfu

A ‘fit and healthy’ mum of two died while holidaying in Greece with her family after eating just one mouthful of uncooked chicken.

Natalie Rawnsley, 37, was on holiday with husband Stewart and her two young sons on the Greek island of Corfu when she was struck down with severe food poisoning, an inquest heard.

Westminster Coroner’s Court heard that Natalie, from Harpenden, rapidly deteriorated in just 36 hours after consuming the chicken at a hotel restaurant.

The triathlete died after blood clots formed all over her body and blocked her blood vessels.

Husband Stewart Rawnsley said that his wife lay bleeding from every orifice in a hospital bed in Corfu as his insurance company insisted she should not be moved to the mainland.

The Rawnsley family left for their break on 13 August last year and were just beginning their second week when tragedy struck.

Mr Rawnsley explained that while he and his children ate one meal, Natalie queued for different food.

He said: ‘I had both my boys with me, we had pasta, bread and sausages. Natalie had a completely different dinner which consisted of chicken, salad, prawns and vegetables.

‘We were already at the table when Natalie came back with her food. Natalie started to eat hers and as she cut the chicken the chicken oozed red blood to which point I commented it looked bloody.

‘She got up took it back replaced the chicken with a different piece and came back and ate it.

‘She had had a few mouthfuls of the other piece of chicken.’

MORE: Lombok earthquake: Over 500 people left stranded as powerful tremor kills 14 on Indonesian island
MORE: Pilot has passengers in fits of laughter after blaming long flight time on BREXIT

Natalie’s husband said his wife had complained that evening of feeling unwell, but had not said anything specific about her condition.

He was woken at 3am when Natalie started throwing up in the hotel bathroom.

A doctor then saw Natalie at 7am the next morning and diagnosed gastroenteritis, at which point Stewart was told to keep himself and the children separate so they didn’t catch it.

Stewart returned at 11am to check on her, and Natalie asked to see a doctor again, who then transferred her to the medical centre a few kilometres away from the hotel.

Stewart said: ‘An ambulance arrived at around 1pm. I was aware she had been moved from the medical centre to the Corfu hospital in the early evening by text message.

‘At 11pm in the evening the first doctor – who saw her at 7am – he knocked on my door and explained that I needed to get dressed and I needed to come to the hospital quickly.

‘I thought my wife was going to be home in the morning.’

A nurse told the inquest she had wanted to fly Natalie to a hospital on the mainland, which had better facilities.

Stewart added: ‘At around 1pm her brother and I noticed her heart monitor was getting weaker and it continued.

‘I screamed out and her brother screamed out. Medical assistance arrived and we were removed from the room.

‘We were outside the door and they were in there five or ten minutes and then the same nurse came out and apologised as there wasn’t anything more she could do, and Natalie died.’

The inquest heard that although Natalie, a stay at home mum, was fit and healthy, the probability of contracting the more serious illness from food poisoning depends entirely on your genes.

Dr Athanasia Vargiamidou performed the post-mortem on Natalie when her body was repatriated from Greece.

She said: ‘The blood was not able to clot properly, it clotted a lot and at the same time.’

Asked if the case presented as a ‘classic case of serious food poisoning’ Dr Vargiamido replied: ‘Yes. I was kind of thinking something along those lines.’

Assistant Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said: ‘There isn’t a magic cure for it. Uncooked chicken is a known to be a source of E-Coli.’

The coroner recorded a verdict of death by the accidental consumption of E-Coli infected chicken.