'My holiday to Turkey ended in tragedy...I wish I could turn back time'

Boarding her return flight from Turkey to Manchester, Michelle was left feeling sick to her stomach.

In a hospital morgue over 2,000 miles from home lay her baby son's body. Michelle, 36, had tragically miscarried while on holiday at 26 weeks, but was forced to leave without being able to repatriate him on the same flight. She claims she was given just 15 days to get him home, or face him being buried in an unmarked grave abroad.

Now Michelle (who asked not to use her real name) is sharing her story to warn other pregnant women who are travelling abroad.

Her holiday started happily. Michelle, her parents, and her three children aged six, five, and two, flew out to the south coast of Turkey together to enjoy some family time away in August of this year.

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Then tragically, one morning she woke up having a miscarriage.

Michelle, from Greater Manchester, called an ambulance and was rushed to hospital where she went into labour. She described how her son was whisked away immediately afterwards.

"They didn't give me any pain relief or anything," she told the Manchester Evening News. "(Following the delivery) they took him straight away - they didn't tell me anything. I don't understand what happened."

It was another 12 hours before Michelle was given any details, she said. "They got an interpreter to tell me that my baby's not here, and they'd taken him straight to the morgue. Immediately after they asked me to pay my bill."

Michelle alleges she was refused access to see her child until she paid the hospital. Even once she had paid, she claims she was only able to spend minutes with him before she was told to leave the morgue.

Traumatised, Michelle discharged herself from hospital the next day, and later returned to try to pick up her son's death certificate. "I only had a couple of days to try and get him on the same flight as us," she said. "I was at the hospital for about five or six hours but ended up having to leave without it."

She claims she was told by the hospital she had just 15 days to repatriate her son before he was buried in an unmarked grave. But with no death certificate, grieving, she was forced to board her flight back to Manchester - leaving her son's body in Turkey.

"I couldn't cope with that," she said. "I've just lost my baby, you've told me my baby has died. I've had to leave the hospital without my child."

Eventually through the help of her insurance company she was able to obtain his death certificate and fly his body back to Manchester. But she said the impact of the tragic experience will stay with her forever.

"I had no time to cuddle him, to put him on my chest," she said. "They just took him out the room. I've got so many questions in my head about what happened.

"They stripped so much away from me. No mother should have to have their child taken away from them. Every single day is a battle."

Michelle said she wants to warn other pregnant women about the treatment she received abroad. "I just wish somebody had warned me," she said.

"I wish I could turn back time and have him here, because at least then he wouldn't have been taken out the room. It has been soul-destroying."

The Foreign Office did not comment when approached by the Manchester Evening News. They pointed readers to their Medical emergencies, treatment and hospitalisation abroad - GOV.UK page.