Woman Eats Under-Cooked Chicken, Dies From Food Poisoning Within 36 Hours

A mother of two died within 36 hours of consuming a mouthful of undercooked chicken during a holiday in the Greek island of Corf with her family in August 2017.

Natalie Rawnsley, 37, contracted a form of food poisoning which formed blood clots all over her body, blocking vessels and causing heavy bleeding. She was immediately taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

"The hotel had two or three restaurants. It was a buffet or restaurant and we had all four of us eating together," Stewart Rawnsley, her husband told Westminster Coroners' Court in London on Monday. "The set up Natalie and I had agreed was we took it in turns alternatively either to go up and get the kids food and our food while the other joined the longer queue for nicer food.”

While he and his sons had pasta, bread and sausages, Natalie decided to have 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,” Stewart said. "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."

She was diagnosed with gastroenteritis the next morning and when the symptoms continued, she was admitted to the hospital. At the hospital, she had “pain in her legs and also a number of red blotches all over her." Natalie died the next day.

"At around 1 p.m. her brother and I notice 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,” he said. “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."

Natalie was healthy and fit and her death record suggested death by the accidental consumption of E-Coli infected chicken, The Sun reported.

"The blood was not able to clot properly, it clotted a lot and at the same time," Dr. Athanasia Vargiamidou who performed the post-mortem on Natalie said.

Infections expert Professor Sebastien Lucas said, "It depends on what your genes are. Assuming it is an E-Coli infection — coming from uncooked chicken seems a very reasonable theory. The point I also made in my report is how it escalates.”

"There's a tipping point when it starts producing DIC. By definition, once it starts doing that, you are doomed. It's a very rapid process and so the chronology I heard from Mr. Rawnsley fits to a’t’ with that view,” he added.

Gastroenteritis is an infection caused by bacteria or virus such as E-coli and triggers symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and fever which generally pass within a week.