Missing medication turned holiday into 'nightmare'

A Worcestershire family's holiday was turned into a "nightmare" after an airport baggage system failure left them without essential medication for more than three days.

Gavin Sparks, from Redditch, was reunited with his luggage on Tuesday morning at his hotel in Dalaman, Turkey, after flying from Birmingham Airport on Friday.

His wife has a gastrointestinal condition which means she takes daily medication to help her tolerate food, while Sparks has type 2 diabetes and also relies on daily medication.

Birmingham Airport said: "We sincerely apologise to all passengers that were affected by these issues over the weekend, and we continue to work hard, reuniting all bags with passengers."

Problems with Birmingham Airport's baggage system emerged on Friday, and saw passengers, travelling with a range of holiday operators, taking off without their suitcases on board their flights.

Passengers have reported incurring expenses to buy replacement clothes during days-long waits to be reunited with their belongings.

But solutions have proved more difficult when medication is involved.

"Over the last 36 hours, she's barely eaten," Sparks said of his wife.

"[Her] medicine, no one in Turkey actually recognises it, so she was having to manage the problem with pain killers."

He added of his own needs: "I kind of played Russian roulette with some medication I bought but I've been brilliantly supported by the doctor within the hotel but you literally are picking and choosing which ones to take."

Sparks, who has since been reunited with his luggage, travelled in a group of eight, which included his brother-in-law, who also requires daily medication.

"He has a very small amount of his medication with him and luckily their cases arrived [on Monday].

"There's a huge learning curve for next time as we might split a few important items."

The family said they were given "zero instructions" when they arrived in Turkey and discovered their bags had not arrived.

"We first found out about this when we landed and we had a very quiet announcement from the pilot saying some cases weren't there," Sparks said.

"When we actually got to the carousel it was stationary, not one case came off.

"Everybody followed a manager around like the Pied Piper and nobody knew what to do."

Sparks admitted he should have known something was not right when he arrived at Birmingham Airport.

"We were met by some pretty strange circumstances which we've never seen [there]," he said.

"There was baggage being corralled everywhere on the floors where people would normally check in."

But despite the family's issues, Sparks refused to say the luggage delay had ruined the trip.

"We've tried to be pretty resolute about it and we've got 11 and 13-year-old children so we can't say it's ruined the holiday.

"[But] we've lost nearly a quarter of our holiday with no cases."

Birmingham Airport said: "Contingency plans have been successful. However, this does not provide comfort for passengers who have been impacted.

"Advice is still that passengers should arrive in line with their airline's advice.

"For those travelling with easyJet. Jet2.com, Ryanair and TUI, a day-before bag drop service is available allowing customers with early morning flights to drop their bags the night before."

Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.