In the photos from the short vacation in Istanbul, the smiling mother Çiyem and her husband Servet, their six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter are seen - at the Egyptian Market in the Old City. On the night of November 13, however, the pleasant time came to a sinister end in the hospital - first the children died, shortly after the young mother, and finally - the 36-year-old father.
The cause of death has not yet been fully clarified. The initial assumption of the authorities and doctors was food poisoning. Before she died, the mother recounted in detail what the family ate in the first three days: soup, kebab and pasta. On the second day - Turkish pastries, flatbreads and garlic salami pizza, on the third, when they got sick, the tourists ate various types of street food: pastries, bagels, stuffed mussels, soup, salami sandwiches, stuffed lamb intestines, chicken and Turkish delight before returning to the hotel.
From the hospital back to the hotel
Shortly after midnight, everyone felt sick and in the morning they were admitted to the hospital. The parents were put on ventilators, given painkillers. The children were taken to another hospital, where they were given probiotics and sent back.
When the family's complaints became very severe during the night and the children lost consciousness, an ambulance was called to the hotel. Shortly after that, the children died, and a day later - so did the mother. Thanks to her information, the authorities were able to quickly reconstruct what exactly happened during the day, searching for the street vendors and the owners of cafes and restaurants from which the food was taken. Four of them were arrested on charges of negligent homicide.
However, the initial autopsy findings do not provide clear results on the cause of death. After other hotel guests had to be taken to the hospital due to complaints of nausea and vomiting, investigators also turned their attention to the hotel. It is suspected that it may have been poisoning with chemicals - harmful insecticides used against bedbugs and other pests that had entered the rooms through the ventilation shafts.
A forensic examination is yet to be prepared to clarify the truth. The hotel owner and two employees of the pest control company have also been detained.
What caused the death - from food or chemicals?
At the same time, Turkish news agencies reported two major cases of food poisoning in the country: 65 affected after a wedding in Trabzon and another 30 after a religious event in Kastamonu. For years, Turkish doctors have been calling for more effective food controls.
However, Istanbul forensic doctor Halis Dokgöz suggests that it is a case of chemical poisoning. He says that food poisoning is relatively common in Turkey - at weddings, in student or company canteens, where the number of victims is high, but the current case with the German family was very atypical.
Chemical poisoning is also common in Turkey, and it can end in death. A year ago, a one-year-old child in Izmir died after neighbors called a company to spray against pests. According to investigators, the poisonous fumes penetrated the lower apartment where the boy was sleeping.
In May 2024, 28 people were poisoned in a container home of a construction company in Istanbul. There, too, an insecticide that was harmful to health was used to control pests. The men had to be treated in hospital.
The threat from insecticides: phosphine gas
In February 2024, a tenant of a house in Konya called a pest control company to the ground floor. The fumes from the insecticide used reached the upper floor, where five members of a family were poisoned. A seven-year-old boy later died in hospital.
In the current case, investigators assume that aluminum phosphide was used. Forensic physician Dokgöz warns that when this highly toxic substance comes into contact with liquids, it forms the extremely toxic gas phosphine. The mortality rate is 40 to 80 percent, and there is no antidote. He emphasizes that the use of this substance, which is also used in countries such as Iran and India, should be carried out with extreme caution or even banned.
It is not yet clear whether the tragedy was caused by food poisoning or insecticides. According to Halis Dokgöz, many factors may have played a role: it is also possible that the effects of two types of poisoning overlapped. The fact is that dangerous pest control products were used in the hotel. The family returned from the hospital back to the room and inhaled the chemical substance, which intensifies the toxic picture. “Therefore, the identity of the chemicals used is of great importance“, says Dokgöz. And it is not excluded that mistakes were also made in the treatment of people in the hospital.
Author: Elmaz Topçu