Blood-clot passenger 'was too ill to fly'

A man who is critically ill in Majorca after developing a blood clot in his leg should not have flown to the holiday island, his package tour company said yesterday.

First Choice Holidays said Gary Gibson, 37, who has a congenital heart condition and wears a pacemaker, was at high risk of developing deep vein thrombosis, the so-called economy class syndrome.

Mr Gibson had surgery to remove a clot from his right leg on 2 December – the day before he had been due to fly home from a week-long winter break. The Briton, who has five children, has since developed serious complications, including pneumonia and kidney failure. Doctors are understood to have said his chances of survival are slim.

His wife, Lillian, was at the family home in south Glasgow last night after being forced to fly home because she had run out of money. The couple did not have travel insurance. She said: "I just want to be by his side. The thought of him in a hospital bed all alone in a foreign country is tearing me up."

First Choice said that if it had been aware Mr Gibson had a history of poor health, it would have advised him not to travel. The company said it did not know whether the flight had caused the blood clot.