LETTER FROM ISTANBUL
An image of the family from social media.
The case has made front-page news in both the Turkish and German press for nearly two weeks, ever since the grim day of November 14, when news broke in Istanbul that a German tourist had died just hours after her two children. The father died three days later at the same hospital, where the family had been admitted for what initially appeared to be food poisoning. All four were taken in for emergency care, but nothing went as expected, at any stage.
The Böcek family arrived in Istanbul on November 9 from Hamburg and checked into one of the many hotels in the Fatih district on the European side of the city, close to Istanbul’s major tourist sites and near the Topkapi Palace, the Hagia Sophia and the Grand Bazaar. After several outings and a trip to another popular area along the Bosphorus, they returned to their room the evening of November 11.
That night, the 27-year-old mother and her two children, aged 6 and 3, began to feel nauseated and complained of dizziness and abdominal pain. The family took a taxi to the nearest hospital. The following morning, doctors deemed them fit to return to the hotel. But the children’s condition worsened. This time, an ambulance rushed them back to the hospital.
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