Tragedy: Gloria Smith died after she drank cleaning fluid which had been left in a water bottle in her hotel room
A mother died on a five-star holiday to Cyprus after she drank from a bottle that a maid had filled with cleaning fluid.
Gloria Smith, 60, was on a two-week break with her fiancé when she returned to her £199-a-night room and took a sip from what appeared to be a bottle of mineral water.
Moments later, she collapsed on the bathroom floor, screaming to her partner, Raymond Francis: 'It's poison, help me.'
An inquest yesterday heard that the maid at the Salamis Bay Conti Resort Hotel in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus, had filled the bottle with a stain remover and left it behind when she had finished cleaning their room.
She was arrested following Mrs Smith's death but released without charge when it became clear that she had made what Mr Francis describes as a 'stupid' and 'negligent' mistake.
The couple were on the fourth day of their holiday in September 2010 when they returned to their hotel room to shower after a morning on the beach.
After declaring she was thirsty, Mrs Smith took the water bottle from a table of drinks in their room and walked to the en suite bathroom, where she suddenly fell to the floor, screaming for help.
Mr Francis, 62, came after her and tasted the discarded bottle, which burned his lips, before calling the hotel reception to demand an ambulance. The hotel's doctor had finished work for the day.
Mr Francis's fiancée, who was a retired hairdresser, was rushed to hospital but died of a heart attack in an ambulance while being transferred to a specialist unit on the holiday island.
The toxic cleaning fluid was said to have caused a build-up of fluid in her lungs and brain. Speaking from the home he had shared with Mrs Smith in Walsall, Mr Francis said she had had so much to live for.
'She was an emotional lady but very loving, we had spoken about getting married,' he said. 'She had so much to live for, she was very happy. She said: “I have a future to look forward to.”'
The retired antiques dealer added: 'Gloria should not have died. It was negligence. It was a stupid, careless mistake.
'We'd come back from a morning on the beach and I suggested we go to the Turkish baths for a sauna.
'Negligent': The retired hairdresser was on the fourth day of her holiday when she drank the poisonous liquid, which had been siphoned into a water bottle by a cleaner
'She had so much to live for': Mrs Smith with her partner Raymond Francis on a previous holiday in Goa
'When we came back to the room Gloria said she was going to have a shower and she said she was thirsty. She went over the table which had little bottles of vodka and soft drinks on it and picked up a bottle of water.
'Gloria went into the bathroom and a few seconds later I heard her screaming, shouting: “It's poison', help me”. She'd dropped the bottle into the sink and was on all fours.
'I picked up the bottle and tasted it and it burned. I tried to help her straight away.' Mr Francis said the bottle looked exactly like a regular small water container.
Luxury: Mrs Smith had been staying at the five star Salamis Bay Conti Resort Hotel & Casino in North Cyprus
Resort: The bottle had been filled with toxic fluid by a cleaner who had mistakenly left it in the room
Grief-stricken: Mrs Smith's partner Ray Francis who was on holiday with her when she died
After an ambulance was called, Mrs Smith was taken to Famagusta hospital where she was initially thought to have been hyperventilating. She was given a paper bag by a nurse who spoke no English.
She was then examined by doctors before dying of a heart attack while in another ambulance being transferred to a specialist hospital.
An inquest at Walsall coroner's court on Monday was read a statement from the hotel maid in which she said the bottle 'had not been intentionally left on the table'.
Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Robin Balmain spoke out against the hotel's 'grossly negligent practice' of transferring cleaning fluids to drinking bottles, which led to Mrs Smith's death.
He said that if the tragic accident had occurred in the UK the hotel would have faced criminal charges. He added: 'Anyone seeing the bottle would assume it contains water.
'If that happened in this country then irrespective of any action against the cleaner the hotel would find themselves prosecuted.'
Mrs Smith, from Reedswood, Walsall, was a widow and had one adult daughter.
The Salamis Bay Conti Resort Hotel has 392 rooms and overlooks the Mediterranean.
The hotel is located close to Roman ruins and boasts a lagoon swimming pool, Turkish bath, sauna and massage rooms, tennis courts, a casino and a private beach.
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