A bit of a different one this month and we’re all sending this out early with the Summer holidays fast approaching I thought it more important to share a message my wife recently put out on social media which as a family is something we want everybody to be aware of.
****WARNING**** PLEASE PLEASE READ AND SHARE**** ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN WITH HOLIDAY SEASON APPROACHING
After a five year old boy drowned in Greece recently my heart goes out to this family at this awful time.
Graeme and I really want to raise awareness as this could have happened to us while holidaying in Dominican Republic in May this year. We’ve been in touch with the hotel, travel agents, local paper, national newspaper, local TV, national TV, Good Morning Britain but heard nothing back.
Holly slept walk out the room during the night while we were sleeping, around 2.30am. The locks on the doors are a fire safety lock, but are not suitable for kids. You lock it and to unlock you pull the handle down and the door opens. Holly is 4 years old and she managed to open it in her sleep. She’s never done anything like this before so it’s never been a concern. When she wakes for a wee she says mummy and I wake instantly.
I woke up to find Holly wasn’t in her bed, checked the spare bed, she wasn’t there, by this point I was panicking and looked at the door and it was open. I was absolutely frantic, my stomach just dropped, I’ve never felt anything like that, I screamed at my husband Holly wasn’t in her bed and the door was wide open. I ran down the corridor shouting her name. Thankfully the hotel have security on and they picked her up crying for mammy and daddy and she was lost. This was all in the space of around 5 minutes of her leaving the room.
It could of been a way worse outcome for us and we’ve been so lucky. If we were on a higher floor, she could have fallen down the stairs, of she took a different turn she could have drowned in the pool, if security hadn’t seen her she might have got lost, been taken and never seen again.
The hotel were brilliant and the next day we complained as to how easy it was for a child to get out of the room, that’s just not right. We demanded a chain be fitted on the door, we got this fitted straight away. That easy.
All we want is for a chain to be fitted on EVERY hotel door so people have to option to use it. We understand the locks on the doors are for fire safety reasons but surely a chain lock on top can happen and save lives or even if the door handle was higher up on the door. We were told to put a chair in front of our door!! That’s even more of a fire risk and why should you do that just make it safe for children.
We really don’t want this to happen again.
Please share as far as you can as we want this picked up by the press and changes made as so far nobody is willing to take any permanent action and all parties contacted seem to be brushing it under the carpet.
