A 74-YEAR-OLD woman has won compensation for being left at a hospital in Switzerland after she became ill on holiday.

Wendy Newton, from Pickering, said she and her husband were left behind by their tour operator after she became ill on holiday.

She has since received a four figure payout in compensation from coach operator Shearings.

Wendy and her husband Geoff were holidaying in Italy at the Hotel Britannia Excelsior, Lake Como in spring last year, when Wendy began to feel unwell. She was still ill when it was time to leave for the coach journey home across the border into Switzerland, through France and then back into the UK.

Mrs Newton said: “I was feeling really unwell and I’m certain it was due to something we had eaten at the hotel, because lots of people were complaining of feeling poorly. There was even an ambulance at reception and someone on a stretcher at one point. My husband did say I was ill, but the hotel didn’t seem to care, they just wanted us off the premises.

“We got on the coach, but after a couple of hours I was feeling awful and asked Geoff to take me to the loo. As we moved down the coach I collapsed.”

She said the driver, who was also the Shearings representative, called an ambulance and she was taken to hospital in Faido in Switzerland.

But Mrs Newton said the coach driver seemed in a rush to get them off and did not ask how they might manage, whether they wanted assistance or had enough money. She said her husband has a heart condition and had to handle the suitcase all the way back to the UK.

Mrs Newton said: “The hospital was very good, but I was diagnosed with food poisoning and gastro-enteritis. I was discharged the next day which was a Sunday. We had no Swiss francs, only euros but the hospital kindly paid for travel to the bus station. The bus driver was lovely, he helped us find the train for Zurich and even explained to the guard that we had no Swiss money but would pay by credit card in Zurich.”

When they arrived in Zurich there were no flights, so they had to travel to Basel, stay in a hotel, and fly to Manchester the next day.

Mrs Newton said: “To more or less abandon us to our fate was in my opinion a disgrace. We complained to Shearings when we got home but got nowhere and so we took legal advice resulting in the compensation.”

They took action with the help of lawyers at Slater & Gordon.

A Shearings spokesperson said: “This incident happened in 2013 and the matter is now settled to the satisfaction of Mr and Mrs Newton. Our customer care team kept in contact with Mr and Mrs Newton throughout these events and we are sorry that they did not feel they were treated satisfactorily.”