Six figure payout comes five years after holiday injury

A woman from Southend, Essex, who suffered a serious holiday injury five years ago, has received a six-figure payout from the tour operator who booked her stay.

Any hope of relaxing with her friends in the Turkish resort town of Marmaris was dashed by a 12ft fall from height injury sustained after staff removed the metal grating covering a storage shaft in the grounds of her hotel.

The woman, now a civil servant, fell into the open manhole whilst heading back to her room after a swim.

"There were no warning signs, no members of hotel staff around at the time and the hole was surrounded by tables and chairs," she said. "The first I knew of it was when I gained consciousness in agony on the concrete floor 12ft below ground.

"My life was transformed, simply because of a fall that sounds like it could have come straight out of a comedy sketch."

The fall caused a number of severe injuries, including an open fracture of her right shinbone and an 8cm long head wound.

The woman spent the last ten days of her holiday in hospital, and required ongoing treatment upon her return to the UK. She was out of work for 18 months, and returned after that time on a part-time basis.

A Southend-based solicitor took up her case for holiday injury compensation and settled for an undisclosed six-figure sum – which the woman says will go towards a new bungalow for herself and her pet Chihuahua.