A woman who was paralysed when she was thrown from her seat on the Orient Express is suing the company.

The Daily Mail reports that Sylvia Brown and her 64-four-year-old husband John had paid £7,000 for the trip to Thailand to celebrate her sixtieth birthday and their Ruby wedding last year. 

On 4 November, Mr and Mrs Brown boarded the locomotive after spending a few days in Hong Kong. They were on the Eastern and Oriental Express observation car, when the driver applied the emergency brakes without warning.

Mrs Brown, from Honiton in Devon, says she was flung from her seat and somersaulted before landing on her head, breaking her neck. She spent 16 days in intensive care before being flown back to the UK and doctors say she will now be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She broke her 6c spinal bone in her neck and for several months was unable to use any of her limbs. Some feeling has now returned in her arms.

However, Mrs Brown is now suing the holiday company, the owners of the Orient Express and its parent company.

'I thought I was completely paralysed from the neck down at first,’ said Mrs Brown. ‘But now I've got some sensation back in my arms.

'But I have had to give up work and my life has now changed forever. It is a complete nightmare.

‘It's so frustrating, because I used to be able to do so much myself, and I hate asking other people for help, but I have got no choice at the moment.’

After being in hospital in Bangkok, Mrs Brown returned to the UK, where doctors found she had the C difficile infection.

Mrs Brown says that the companies involved have declined to discuss the accident or the issue of compensation and she has been left to ‘fend for herself'. It is thought the dispute centres round who is actually to blame for the accident and Mrs Brown’s injuries. The train company leases the coaches from the State Railway of Thailand – the company which manages the railway line.

However, the couple are being forced to sell their home to pay for Mrs Brown’s care and have had to rent a bungalow. They are now suing Bath Travel, Eastern Orient Express and its parent company Venice Simplon Orient Express Ltd.

Joint managing director for Bath Travel, Andrew Bath, declined to comment and said the matter was 'in the hands of solicitors'. No spokesman for the State Railway of Thailand was available for comment.

A spokeswoman for the Eastern and Oriental Express told the Daily Mail:

'We are deeply concerned about Mrs Brown, but as this matter is now with our lawyers we can't discuss the matter.'

© 5r1 Claims Limited