The widower of a grandmother who died of Legionnaires' disease on a Caribbean vacation to celebrate her 70th birthday has launched legal action against a tour operator.

Lynn Stigwood reportedly caught the deadly bug during a 10-day stay at the Grand Sirenis resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, in 2019 with her husband Melvyn. Stigwood started vomiting and suffering from diarrhea and was struggling to breathe before being taken to a local hospital.

She was placed in an induced coma before being transferred to Florida for further treatment. Stigwood spent the next month in a coma but never regained consciousness. She died September 29, 2019, just six days after her 70th birthday.

Now, almost three years after her death, lawyers have issued High Court proceedings against their tour operator TUI. Her grieving husband, 72, wants the firm to investigate how the illness emerged and whether more could have been done to stop it.

Melvyn, a coach driver from High Wycombe, England, said: "Instead of celebrating Lynn's 70th birthday, I spent it by her bedside. It was frightening and too much to take in at the time.

"Lynn was a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother and I'm not sure I'll ever get over losing her. The initial shock has been replaced by that numb feeling that I'll never see her again.

"Coming to terms with this still seems impossible and while nothing can bring Lynn back, I'm more determined than ever to find out what exactly happened. It's the least that Lynn deserves."

Stigwood was on a long-anticipated family vacation with her husband, their daughter Helen, son-in-law Martin and their teenage grandchildren, Ben and Alysia. Stigwood's children Philip and Helen flew to Florida to say goodbye to her before her life support was turned off.

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