Not very smart to put medications in checked baggage, but the article refers to "dream first holiday" so I think we could imply they are not regular travellers.

I suppose the 'medication' angle makes it a better media story but I sense the irritation is partly around it taking 5 days to get bags back on a route BA flies daily, a pretty feeble effort even by BA standards it must be said.

OK BA will pay for essentials (I wonder if they volunteered that) but if I had saved hard for a family holiday I would be really irked at having to spend a good chunk of it arranging essentials.