John Cooper, 69, and his wife Susan, 63, were having a “brilliant” break at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel at Hurghada.
The “fit and healthy” couple from Burnley were with their daughter Kelly Ormerod, three grandchildren and pals at the Red Sea resort.
But around lunchtime on their eighth day the neighbouring room was fumigated with a pesticide called Lambda.
It was diluted with dichloromethane, creating carbon monoxide, the Preston inquest heard.
Hours later the couple returned to their room for the night. Their granddaughter Molly, 12, staying on a single bed, began to feel ill and in the early hours John took her to her mum Kelly’s room. The next morning Kelly knocked after her parents failed to appear for breakfast.
She found both her builder dad and cashier mum seriously ill. He was declared dead in the room and her mother hours later in hospital.
Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire, ruled that the spraying had created sufficient vapour to pass under the rooms’ shared connecting locked door to poison the couple in August 2018.
Earlier, the three-day inquest heard from toxicology expert Professor Robert Chilcott.
He told the hearing that in less developed countries the pesticide Lambda is sometimes diluted with dichloromethane. Prof Chilcott said this causes the body to metabolise or ingest carbon monoxide.
Home Office pathologist Dr Charles Wilson told the hearing the Coopers’ hotel room had not been secured and it would be “inconceivable” such measures would not be taken in the event of a double death in a hotel in the UK. The inquest also heard of repeated attempts since 2018 by the Foreign Office to get more documents and information from the authorities in Egypt.
The coroner said John’s death was rapid but the treatment for Susan was “utterly insufficient”.
She was taken to a clinic in the hotel before an ambulance was called, creating a delay of four hours before she got to hospital.
