‘They treated us like animals!’  Mother whose dream holiday to Turkey was destroyed when her son was rushed into ‘mortuary’-esque hospital with ‘excruciating stomach pain’ reveals worst things about emergency care abroad

A mother’s dream family holiday to Turkey was derailed after her son underwent emergency surgery in a horror hospital that resembled a mortuary.. 

Kay Bainbridge, from Rainham, Kent, was enjoying a family holiday to Turkey when her five-year-old son Layton began experiencing excruciating stomach pain. 

The panicked mother-of-three said she immediately sought medical attention from her Antalya hotel doctor but was told her son could not be seen without a large cash payment.

The Kent native spent more than £1,270 on medical costs for her little boy and claims that her insurance company has yet to cover the cost.

She has now set up a GoFundMe to help cover the costs of the emergency treatment and flights home after revealing the terrible reality of the emergency care they received.  

The mother and son flew out to Turkey with Kay’s two other sons Kian and Kayson, her mother, brother, sister, and her children’s father on May 14 for a family holiday.

But while relaxing in Antalya, Layton, five, became extremely unwell and in the early hours of May 20 Kay found her little boy ‘screaming in excruciating pain and vomiting’.

The worried mother called the hotel doctor over who redirected her to a local clinic which Kay described as ‘rundown’ and added ‘it was like going in to a mortuary.’

Kay Bainbridge was enjoying a family holiday to Turkey when her five-year-old son Layton (pictured) began experiencing excruciating stomach pain and was rushed to hospital

Kay (pictured) flew out to Antalya, Turkey with her sons Kian, Layton and Kayson, her mother, brother, sister, and her children’s father on May 14 for a family holiday

The mother-of-three said she sought medical attention from her hotel doctor after she found Layton screaming in pain but was told her son could not be seen without a large cash payment

The Kent native then explained that before her son had even been examined she was asked to pay up front costs of more than £1,000. 

Kay, worried for her son, handed over her last £250 which said was supposed to be for spending money for the last day or two of the holiday.

She added that despite telling staff she had no more money left, they continued demanding more from her and she felt they became aggressive towards her.

Kay said: ‘They were still demanding £800 on top of the £200 and because I couldn’t pay they got really angry and really aggressive.’

Layton was then transferred to Baskent University Hospital in Alanya for further treatment and an operation on his intestines which had become twisted.

But the mother-of-three said the care did not improve and during her stay she found the staff rude, the meals inedible and the care lacking in professionalism. 

The Kent local described how on route from the doctor’s clinic to the hospital, paramedics fell asleep in the ambulance and Kay was left to watch over her son alone.

‘While we were travelling there the paramedic was asleep, curled up in the back of the ambulance fast asleep for two hours on the way to the hospital while she was supposed to be taking care of Layton.’

The Kent native spent more than £1,270 on medical costs for her little boy and claims that her insurance company has yet to cover the cost

The Kent local described how on route from the doctor’s clinic to the hospital, paramedics fell asleep in the ambulance and Kay was left to watch over her son alone

After the surgery, Kay claims the hospital refused to let her son eat and the meals they did provide were awful – ‘It was slop, literally just beans and rice, proper poor food’

Kay explained that upon her arrival, while Layton was taken immediately in to surgery, her and her son’s passports were taken off them by hospital staff. 

The worried mother explained this left her in a panic.

‘All this was going on like no one spoke English. I didn’t have a clue what was going on. All I knew was that my son was going for surgery. I didn’t know where or what was happening,’ she said.

After the surgery, Kay claims the hospital refused to let her son eat and the meals they did provide were awful.

‘As a private hospital, you would expect something decent. I wouldn’t even feed the food to an animal it was that bad. 

‘It was slop, literally just beans and rice, proper poor food,’ Kay said.

She went on to describe the treatment her son received as shocking and told MailOnline she watched medics anaesthetise Layton while he was still sitting in a wheelchair in the emergency room.

She also said that her son was screaming and begging them to stop as they roughly inserted a cannula in to his hand that left the bed stained with blood.

Kay said: ‘Before the surgery they were putting cannulas in his arm and they were pinning him down while he was screaming, begging them to stop.’

Kay told MailOnline the medical care was poor and her son was screaming and begging nurses to stop as they roughly inserted a cannula in to his hand that left the bed stained with blood

Kay also confessed she fears she may have signed away her son’s organs during the process because she kept being handed forms in Turkish, without any translation 

After waiting in the hospital for her son to be deemed fit to fly, Kay told MailOnline the hospital believed they had lost her and Layton’s passports and she was only able to recover them after threatening to get the police involved. 

Kay also confessed she fears she may have signed away her son’s organs during the process because she kept being handed forms in Turkish, without any translation and struggled with the language barrier. 

‘I was getting made to sign things like things that weren’t in English. I don’t know what I was signing,’ she recounted.

‘I still don’t know what I signed to this day. All I’ve been given is his medical report. No copies of anything that I’ve signed.’

‘All this was going on like no one spoke English. I didn’t have a clue what was going on. All I knew was that my son was going for surgery. I didn’t know where or what was happening. 

In total Kay paid £1,270 for the emergency treatment for her son but her worries did not end there.

Having run out of money, Kay and Layton were unable to stay in a hotel after being discharged.

Although Kay said she contacted her insurance company, she claims they informed her they would be unable to cover the costs of a hotel stay for a further five days while Layton recovered and the mother confessed she and her five-year-old son were forced to sleep in the airport and book an earlier flight home. 

Kay says she and Layton were forced to sleep on the floor of an airport as they waited for their flight home because they had run out of money and couldn’t afford a hotel

And the whole experience has had a lasting impact on her son who has begged his mother not to ever go back out to Turkey

She said: ‘My poor child had to spend eight hours on the cold floor in a Turkish airport because we had nowhere else to go.’

Kay added that she made the best of the situation and pushed two chairs together to create a makeshift bed for Layton, who was still recovering from surgery, to sleep on. 

She added: ‘It was either sleep on the streets with him, sleep in the airport for 5 days, or risk bringing him home.’

The mother-of-three also had to pay £140 for flights back to the UK where the rest of her worried family waited for news.

And the whole experience has had a lasting impact on her son.   

‘He’s tramuatised. He keeps saying “Mum please don’t ever take me back there” and he won’t tell me he’ s in pain because he think he’s going to have  to go back there, ‘ Kay revealed.

Now back in the UK, Kay explained that in her son’s first NHS hospital appointment she will ask for a full scan of her son’s organs after finding worrying medical details on her son’s paperwork. 

‘I’ll have full scans to make sure he’s got everything there, because on this paperwork it mentions that his appendix couldn’t be seen. He’s never had his appendix taken out.,’ Kay said.

‘And I’ve seen stories out there – that woman who had her heart removed. ‘

Earlier this month Beth Martin, 28, fell ill during a flight to Turkey. 

Initially blaming food poisoning, the mother-of-two from Portsmouth was taken to hospital where she tragically died a day later. 

In a sickening turn of events, a UK autopsy later revealed Beth’s heart had been removed after she passed away in Turkey. 

The Ministry of Health in Turkey revealed Beth died after a ‘cardiac arrest due to multiple organ failure’ – but stopped short at explaining the exact cause of this and have not explained why her heart was missing. 

Kay added: ‘A lot of people have told me they [Turkish surgeons] can just take the organs for their own right. And they don’t need permission. It’s worried me a bit, so I just want to make sure that I understand all the paperwork I’ve signed.’

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