Adding to the rising numbers of people who’ve both fallen unwell or died even as journeying Dominican Republic lodges and accommodations, a set of Oklahoma-based Jimmy Buffet fans allegedly grew violently unwell at the same time as traveling the Dominican Republic’s Hotel Riu Palace Macao on an April organization ride to Punta Cana. Dana Flowers, a member of the Central Oklahoma Parrothead Association (who also serves as the institution’s travel agent), tells PEOPLE that forty-seven of the 114 people at the trip were given ill, with many not able to go away their rooms. He stated a few are nonetheless no longer feeling “regular” months later.
“We went [to Hotel Riu Palace Macao] for the week — a few longer, some shorter,” he tells PEOPLE. “We have been taking part in the seashore and the pool, and about three or 4 days into the ride, we started listening to approximate humans getting sick. They had been getting diarrhea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches.” Flowers says the group started with chalking the mystery disease up to food poisoning, but their symptoms commenced to worsen. Flowers, who turned into those affected by the illness, claims he misplaced 14 pounds over 19 days. “It changed into a number of the worst illness I’ve ever been, and I don’t usually ever get unwell,” he says.
Flowers claims that everyone who grew unwell in his organization either swam in a single specific pool or drank at the swim-up bar. When the group participants sought remedy from the on-website doctor, Flowers claims, ”Most of them were given an IV, they have been prescribed a medication for parasites. [They] didn’t do any testing; they simply mechanically gave them medication for parasites.” He says after returning domestic from the trip, two members of his institution tested wonderfully for salmonella.
In an assertion to PEOPLE, Hotel Riu Palace Macao says, “We are aware that three visitors staying final April at this resort and coming from the same group have been attended by a probable case of gastroenteritis in our health practitioner’s workplace. These events happened after an outside hobby of this organization outdoor the hotel, so we can not decide the exact beginning of the belly upset. No more similar cases have been registered using different visitors throughout the indicated date above.”
The U.S. State Department has confirmed that, as a minimum, six American travelers have died even as vacationing in the Dominican Republic for the reason that summer season of 2018. Some of them exceeded away in what seems like weird — and comparable — circumstances. PEOPLE confirms that each the FBI and the CDC are investigating these unusual deaths, but the corporations aren’t yet liberating in addition to information. In addition to the six showed via the State Department, Staten Island resident Leyla Cox changed into discovered dead in her room remaining Monday from an apparent coronary heart attack. She had just celebrated her 53rd birthday.
On May 30, 2019, engaged couple Nathaniel Edward Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, had been observed useless in their hotel room at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana hotel, according to an assertion launched by using the lodge. Holmes and Day of Maryland have been found with the aid of a motel body of workers once they neglected their scheduled checkout time that day, in line with the announcement. Their bodies did no longer display signs and symptoms of violence, USA Today pronounced. The Dominican Republic National Police announced that an autopsy discovered the couple had respiratory failure and pulmonary edema. Day also reportedly suffered cerebral edema.
Pennsylvania native Yvette Monique Sport, 51, had arrived at the Bahia Príncipe motel in Punta Cana whilst she died in June 2018. Though her demise becomes to start with ruled a coronary heart assault, with the information that several American vacationers have died on the Bahía Príncipe in Punta Cana, Sport’s reason for loss of life is being investigated once more. David Harrison, 45, became celebrating his wedding ceremony anniversary along with his wife and 12-yr-old son. At the same time, he died of a coronary heart assault on the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana in July of 2018.
On May 25 of this year, Pennsylvania psychotherapist Miranda Schaupp-Werner, 41, collapsed quickly after blending a drink from the minibar in the Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville in La Romana, where she was celebrating her 9th wedding ceremony anniversary with her husband, Daniel Werner. According to post-mortem effects released with the aid of the Attorney General of the Dominican Republic, she died of a coronary heart attack that prompted breathing failure and fluid accumulation in her lungs.
In April 2019, Robert Bell Wallace, 67, died whilst staying on the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino hotel in Punta Cana. His niece, Chloe Arnold, advised Fox News that he became unwell after drinking from his hotel room’s minibar. He was in the country to attend his stepson’s wedding. According to Univision, Robin Bernstein, the ambassador of America to the Dominican Republic, recently said that these excessive-profile incidents have to be now not considered greater than isolated cases. “We have 2.7 million Americans who come to the country, and the facts are that that is a very a particular event,” Bernstein stated. “They come to visit the stunning beaches and experience the wonderful culture. But, unfortunately, on occasion, those things manifest to people.”
