Posted on 11/27/2025 3:41:18 AM PST by daniel1212
Cigdem Boceck, 27, and her husband Servet, 38, fell ill just two days after travelling from Hamburg, Germany to the Turkish city of Istanbul with their two children Masal, three, and Kadir, six, on November 9.
Two days later, they left their hotel shortly after midday and took a taxi to Ortakoy, where they ate midye, a popular street snack of stuffed mussels served cold with lemon, from a street vendor.
After the midye they each ordered different dishes at a restaurant, including kokorec, a dish made from calf intestines and tavuk tantuni, a type of Turkish chicken wrap.
They later bought Turkish delights from a shop in Fatih before returning to their hotel. Once back at the hotel, Masal and Kadir began suffering from nausea and vomiting.
Both children were taken to hospital, with the parents also developing similar symptoms shortly afterwards.
A major probe has been launched by Istanbul’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office, which, so far, has led to 11 people being detained, including the street vendors the family bought food from.
Initially, detectives were focusing on suspected food poisoning, but evidence has since emerged that the family may have been exposed to pesticides in the hotel where they were staying, Turkish media reported.
Police and prosecutors have a theory that a substance used in a bedbug treatment in a room on the hotel’s ground floor may have reached the family’s room through the bathroom ventilation shaft and poisoned them.
The harmful substance is aluminium phosphide which is a powerful toxic chemical used as a pesticide in agriculture and homes that can cause death if inhaled in high amounts
As for Aluminium phosphide (AlP) that is a highly toxic inorganic compound used primarily as a fumigant and rodenticide. It releases phosphine gas, which is flammable, when it reacts with moisture, posing significant health risks, including potential poisoning and accidental deaths.
Symptoms of Exposure
Inhalation: Can cause respiratory distress, nausea, vomiting, and chest pain. Ingestion: May lead to severe gastrointestinal issues, including abdominal pain and vomiting of blood. Skin Contact: Can result in irritation and a sensation of pins and needles.
A friend’s daughter has a fungal infection which she probably got when they were visiting Turkey.
It is about 50% fatal. She is a healthy girl, 14, as I recall. We are praying for her.
It took the doctors a significant time to discover what the problem was. Such an infection is very rare in the USA. It is mostly found in the Middle East, which is why the trip to Turkey is the suspected source.
You couldn’t pay me enough to eat the food they bought. Yuck
*Update*
11 Arrested Over Vacation Deaths of Family of 4, as Chemical Pesticides Become Suspected Cause Instead of Food Poisoning
https://people.com/11-arrested-family-4-dead-chemical-pesticides-food-poisoning-11853419
Avoid traveling to Muslim countries. Bad things happen there.
Amen!
I might do the Turkish Delight.
Bad things happen everywhere, but I agree with you on any place where the whole country smells like a fart.
Barf. And barf again.
Barf. And barf again.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1317688/posts
Many years ago, as we prepared our return to a tough posting in the Far Abroad after leave in the States, our son asked, “Do we have to go back to the ‘turd’ world?” That phrase, “redolent” with the wisdom possessed only by children, has stayed with me over these passing years. My son was right about the ‘turd’ world. What tips you off that you have arrived in a poor country, a truly, genuinely dirt-poor corner of the Far Abroad, is the smell. As you leave the airport, you notice a special “exotic” odor of rotting vegetation, garbage, and feces combined with a slight whiff of smoke.
Kinda surprised they stayed so long on their rooms if it was full of gasses from fumigation. Is that stuff odorless? Even leaving their rooms to go to the hospital wasn’t enough to save them.
>> You couldn’t pay me enough to eat the food they bought. Yuck
You couldn’t pay me enough to go to moslem turd world hellhole Turkey. Double yuck!
I will, however, celebrate Turkey Day today. And thank GOD that I’m American!
>> So they decided to raise the stakes by eating “street food”.
And street SEAFOOD??!? Mussels??? C’mon man!
*Avoid traveling to Muslim countries. Bad things happen there.*
Avoid ANYTHING islamic if you value your life. Their track-record speaks for itself.
Darwin snacks
“Anyone with a brain knows that eating anything in a third world country is sketchy at best.”
I’m even leery about church potlucks. You can’t be too careful. “Is it meat, or is it cake?”
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