Natalie Creane, the British tourist who suffered head injuries during a stay at the Emirates Palace hotel, Abu Dhabi has begun her appeal against the AED 200,000 (US $55,000) compensation awarded in her case. In a statement released to Hotelier Middle East a friend of the family confirmed Creane has filed a claim for AED 27 million after all defendants were found guilty of “gross negligence”.
Creane’s lawyer, Nasser Malallah, who filed the compensation claim at the Abu Dhabi civil appeals court, is reported to have said that the sum is to pay for her ongoing medical expenses and as compensation for a lifetime’s worth of salary that she now cannot earn as she is too sick to work.
The injured tourist was staying with her husband and stepson at the five-star Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi in July 2008, when a loose wooden panel covering the AV unit fell, hitting her on the temporal lobe (the front part of her head) as she opened the door to the wardrobe in her room, according to an account of the incident published on the ‘Justice for Natalie’ Facebook page.
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The Facebook page, which was set up by Creane's friends in 2012 and has 23,930 supporters, says Creane was found by a hotel staff member. Rather than calling an ambulance, the hotel’s duty manager drove her to a nearby hospital.
“With no prior history of such problems, she began to suffer from horrendous seizures and was suffering from the effects of a major concussion and was, therefore, incapacitated for months and months.”
Creane has since been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Intractable Refractory Epilepsy and Traumatic Brain Injury.
“Her seizures cause her to collapse suddenly and she has frequently sustained serious injuries during these seizures, including broken bones and fractures,” say her friends.
“She has been in five comas and on ventilators, had blood clots in her lung and leg, extreme blood toxicity, paralysis, temporary loss of sight, massive hair loss, severe debilitating headaches, temporary loss of speech, confusion, permanent memory loss, insomnia, constant infections due to suppressed immunity and over 20 stays in intensive care.
In February, the civil court found that Creane’s seizures resulted from her injury at the hotel and ordered Emirates Palace, the Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company and Kempinski, the company that runs Emirates Palace, to jointly pay Dhs100,000 for the injury to her health, plus a further Dhs100,000 for emotional damages.
However, Natalie’s lawyer appeal states that this payout does not properly compensate Creane for her severe injuries and the amount of money she has so far had to spend on treatment.
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Apr 29, 2013 , United Arab Emirates
Shocking, just shocking. This woman is now back in intensive care. It is tantamount to indirect torture on behalf of the corporations responsible. Eventually they will be charged with manslaughter I am certain. Such a tragic situation.
Apr 27, 2013 , Jordan
Poor lady, no one should be subjected to this negligence, Please do not be fooled by the Buildings of the fancy hotels, it is the companies who run such hotels what to just charge the owner a lot of money and kill the cost of the operation in order to come with a fat sum of money return to the He...