Dominican Republic - American tourists found dead in resorts, same cause of death, 2018/2019

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With all of those hotels raking in the money, my guess is that the owners are corporations outside of DR.

Owning resorts is a money laundering thing as well as often a way of getting money.

I know where I live in a foreign tourism country with high high unemployment, the govt gives money to resort owners because jobs will be provided. They get money up front and then have to pay back the rest of the money starting in five years with a low interest loan.

Always, in five years they go bankrupt. They have paid themselves handsomely both in overcharging for materials and in managerial costs.

The same happens in the US when cities give money to companies and after a few years the company moves on to greener pastures.

The resort industry is a real money machine. And there are plenty of people who know how to run the giveaways for their benefit.
 
1. There may also be a policy for commercial airlines when returning remains that they must be embalmed or cremated, for infection control purposes. This might not be specific to the DR, but the policy for international carriers into the US. I can see the logic behind this and DR officials are likely bound by this. This may not be the case for military or other LE purposes when a case is taken by the US LE (like FBI).

2. All medical services for USAnians are going to be cash-only as most all major US insurances, Medicare, and Medicaid will not pay DR hospitals. Medicare & Medicaid, specifically do not cover healthcare outside the US. Other policies may reimburse you, but only after you have paid up front. That's common in less prosperous c0untries - you pay for everything up front- the room, the doctors, the nurses, the gloves, the IV's, the drugs, even food. You pay cash $$

There are specific medical evacuation insurance programs (like MedJet) that will fly you in a private plane, or commercial plane if it is safer, back to any hospital in the US. After traveling extensively and seeing someone get gravely injured, I have a MedJet policy and keep it up !

That is smart. Does that cover dead bodies too? These hotel or resorts in the DR don't seem to be spreading the wealth around. If these resorts cause a hoard of drunk comparatively wealthy foreigners to descend on the local populace that might not appeal to people living there. If locals benefited from tourism they might be less inclined to rob tourists. The resorts could work with the hospitals selling a sort of temporary insurance or they could have an arrangement that would make their guests welcome at a hospital with no charges up front. The hotels could cover the bill and get reimbursed later, and guests wouldn't be daunted by being asked to pay upfront. If you want to make your country a tourism destination make it a place people want to return to and not because they are trying to get a loved one's body returned to them. idk
 
Great, insightful posts @Herat !

I can easily see there isn't money or top notch health care in the DR, but what stands out to me is that they care more about covering things up in hopes it goes away quickly so they can keep making that $money$ from tourists. I'm not surprised as it is a big part of their economy.

Roughly 2.7 million Americans visit the Dominican Republic annually, accounting for 47 percent of all tourists. Overall, tourism directly and indirectly accounts for nearly 22 percent of the island’s economy.

In San Pedro de Macoris, home to many hotel employees, residents expressed anger that bad press in the United States could hurt the economy.

Elias Cadete, a 67-year-old taxi driver, blamed “people in countries that are interested in robbing us of our tourists.”

“It’s worrying because tourism is the spinal cord of our economy,” he said. “If tourism falls, my country falls.”

There are currently 8 cases we are highlighting, but I wonder how many other cases of illness or death have happened but haven't been reported (yet) because the individuals and families didn't realize the situation and couldn't advocate properly as far as lab send outs and investigations etc.

It is hard for me to believe that these are new circumstances causing illness and death, but this is merely speculation.

As always MOO

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.185e6fdb2cdf
 
With all of those hotels raking in the money, my guess is that the owners are corporations outside of DR.

Owning resorts is a money laundering thing as well as often a way of getting money.

I know where I live in a foreign tourism country with high high unemployment, the govt gives money to resort owners because jobs will be provided. They get money up front and then have to pay back the rest of the money starting in five years with a low interest loan.

Always, in five years they go bankrupt. They have paid themselves handsomely both in overcharging for materials and in managerial costs.

The same happens in the US when cities give money to companies and after a few years the company moves on to greener pastures.

The resort industry is a real money machine. And there are plenty of people who know how to run the giveaways for their benefit.

The hotels and resorts should be held responsible. If the parent company or corporation isn't located in the Dominican Republic could that make it easier to sue them or force them to stop killing their guests? Are any of these hotels part of an established chain or linked to one? If they are that's not great PR.
 
Seems like the medical community is in on it. Pay some one to spike the alcohol or sabotage the air filters at different resorts and shake them down for a few hundred at the resort and maybe a couple of grand at the local hospital. Because they are paying shills to spike it or plant it, the method isn’t exact and they lose a few along the way. Medical community covers for it, “heart attack”, nothing to see here, move along. “Sorry we won’t sign to send the bodies back without cremation”. IMOO, just a thought.

When all the problems in Mexico come to light wasn’t it said that the resorts themselves had ownership in the medical facilities or clinics guests were sent to?

Not sure if this is too off topic but large groups being affected by illnesses requiring antibiotics and fluids with no known cause.
Oklahoma high school graduates fall ill during celebration trip to Punta Cana


More Oklahomans Report Illness After Trip To Dominican Republic
 
So the food traveled with you from the hotel? Plain rice carries bacteria? Maybe I don't want to know that lol. For that price they could have employed the services of food places local to where you picnicked. Did you get to experience the culture apart from the hotel. The all you can drink thing is great if you want to drink alcohol. Plying guests with booze makes them less likely to have complaints. Does drinking booze help kill bacteria that could be in ice or other parts of a mixed drink? For some reason I believe that even if it isn't really true lol. If you drink that 95 dollars/pounds? (still high) isn't unreasonable but it is way to much for some leftover pigeon. Those all you can drink deals cause people to drink more than they normally would. College age kids that don't know their limits yet seem like they could be in danger of getting alcohol poisoning. Not providing water to match the booze is proof they wanted people drunk. It's not surprising that people die in these places. Alcohol gives the hotels a way to explain some mysterious deaths and blame the victims. Tourists that have been assaulted, or raped might not always report it. They might blame themselves. You didn't drink so you tasted and noticed the disgusting menu that they served. Some people might not even know if they ate or what they ate. That's scary.
Bacillus cereus is the most common form of bacteria in rice. Uncooked rice can contain spores that don't die during cooking and given the right circumstances, multiply. Bacillus cereus - A guide to Food poisoning
 
With all of those hotels raking in the money, my guess is that the owners are corporations outside of DR.

Owning resorts is a money laundering thing as well as often a way of getting money.

I know where I live in a foreign tourism country with high high unemployment, the govt gives money to resort owners because jobs will be provided. They get money up front and then have to pay back the rest of the money starting in five years with a low interest loan.

Always, in five years they go bankrupt. They have paid themselves handsomely both in overcharging for materials and in managerial costs.

The same happens in the US when cities give money to companies and after a few years the company moves on to greener pastures.

The resort industry is a real money machine. And there are plenty of people who know how to run the giveaways for their benefit.

Or cut corners, to increase profits. Buy off brand liquor, or even illegal home brewed hooch, to add to the liquor. I read that home brewed liquor is made with sugar, easily contaminated with botulism. That type of poisoning could easily mimic a heart attack.

There may be many more people affected, who just thought they were sick from a hangover or bad food. Probably younger, healthier people are able to overcome toxins in alcohol that may affect older adults who may be taking medications that could interact with the toxin differently.
 
Exactly and you expect your hotel reps to help you if you have a issue instead of shrugging their shoulders.

I definitely think back handers went on with the excursions to the hotel to get tourists to book them.

As I said ours was definitely unsafe and we was promised free drinks and food and 1 drink in a boiling hot country for 10 hours wasn’t acceptable. Yet oddly they still had a ton of booze left over but no water. Also our lunch was served at a random stop in the middle of nowhere in a tent and about 4/5 women served us food from dishes that had cling film over them and one dish was called Pigeon pea Rice coz the name alone made me want to vomit. I know Rice is one of the worse things you can eat due to not storing it correctly due to the bacteria it collects so I didn’t eat it. But can you imagine spending £95 each on a day out and you are served cold left overs from god knows where in the middle of nowhere for lunch and 1 bottle of water?!

There is no pigeon in Pigeon Peas with Rice. They are just a type of legume.

ETA: Agree, the rice probably wasn't safe. moo
 
That is smart. Does that cover dead bodies too? These hotel or resorts in the DR don't seem to be spreading the wealth around. If these resorts cause a hoard of drunk comparatively wealthy foreigners to descend on the local populace that might not appeal to people living there. If locals benefited from tourism they might be less inclined to rob tourists. The resorts could work with the hospitals selling a sort of temporary insurance or they could have an arrangement that would make their guests welcome at a hospital with no charges up front. The hotels could cover the bill and get reimbursed later, and guests wouldn't be daunted by being asked to pay upfront. If you want to make your country a tourism destination make it a place people want to return to and not because they are trying to get a loved one's body returned to them. idk

Yes. I'm sure there are standard commercial airline policies that all human (and other) remains ( which would include dead bodies, parts of dead bodies, or cremated remains) must be treated so as to be non-infectious. For a dead body (or parts) that would be either embalming or cremation, but there might be other methods that I can't think of right now

There has to be an exception for medically urgent transplants of viable tissue for immediate medical care, blood products, specimens for testing purposes.

I think you are seriously overestimating the ability of the DR to manage a complicated issue such as medical insurance for foreign visitors.
 
The hotels and resorts should be held responsible. If the parent company or corporation isn't located in the Dominican Republic could that make it easier to sue them or force them to stop killing their guests? Are any of these hotels part of an established chain or linked to one? If they are that's not great PR.

I predict that both the hotels that have been implicated in the apparent beverage tampering will be reorganized with new owners and new names in less than 3 months.
 
Great, insightful posts @Herat !

I can easily see there isn't money or top notch health care in the DR, but what stands out to me is that they care more about covering things up in hopes it goes away quickly so they can keep making that $money$ from tourists. I'm not surprised as it is a big part of their economy.

There are currently 8 cases we are highlighting, but I wonder how many other cases of illness or death have happened but haven't been reported (yet) because the individuals and families didn't realize the situation and couldn't advocate properly as far as lab send outs and investigations etc.

It is hard for me to believe that these are new circumstances causing illness and death, but this is merely speculation.

As always MOO

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.185e6fdb2cdf

This happens all over the world.

There must be hundreds or thousands more cases where visitors fall it, but not terminally so and just consider it part of the "exotic" experience.

Perhaps the DR being so close to the US has escaped scrutiny as less critically ill people can return home within a couple of hours the next day.

And we haven't even yet begun to discuss the issues with the cruise industry, who has it's own, totally legal, way of circumventing regulations and accountability. [/QUOTE]
 
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Great, insightful posts @Herat !

There are currently 8 cases we are highlighting, but I wonder how many other cases of illness or death have happened but haven't been reported (yet) because the individuals and families didn't realize the situation and couldn't advocate properly as far as lab send outs and investigations etc.

It is hard for me to believe that these are new circumstances causing illness and death, but this is merely speculation.

As always MOO

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.185e6fdb2cdf

And this is why we Americans need to support funding for CDC, FDA, NIH, CMS, USDA, OSHA, EPA, NIOSH, and other such US governmental agencies that function to protect our health and well being by enforcing standards and investigating unusual circumstances or disease outbreaks.

We can't rely on other countries to be able to mount the kind of regulatory and investigative environment as we have here. You can see what happens when these kinds of programs don't exist, or are severely compromised by graft and fraud.
 
Yes. I'm sure there are standard commercial airline policies that all human (and other) remains ( which would include dead bodies, parts of dead bodies, or cremated remains) must be treated so as to be non-infectious. For a dead body (or parts) that would be either embalming or cremation, but there might be other methods that I can't think of right now

There has to be an exception for medically urgent transplants of viable tissue for immediate medical care, blood products, specimens for testing purposes.

I think you are seriously overestimating the ability of the DR to manage a complicated issue such as medical insurance for foreign visitors.

Why can't the FBI take custody of the body as evidence? They are there investigating! Couldn't the son literally give them permission? Or couldn't the FBI get an injunction to prevent the destruction of evidence? Then the FBI could fly her back.


The bodies of Edward Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, who died under mysterious circumstances in the Dominican Republic have been returned to their home state of Maryland, where the families are arranging to have their own private autopsy performed.

Bodies of couple who died in Dominican Republic return to Maryland - theGrio

So were they embalmed? If not, how did they accomplish that?
 
Why can't the FBI take custody of the body as evidence? They are there investigating! Couldn't the son literally give them permission? Or couldn't the FBI get an injunction to prevent the destruction of evidence? Then the FBI could fly her back.

So were they embalmed? If not, how did they accomplish that?

You can autopsy an embalmed body. You would not be able to get accurate conventional blood toxicology. I'm not sure about vitreous fluid. It might still be preserved.

The FBI would have to be able to seize the body(ies) before embalming for toxicology.
 
Yes. I'm sure there are standard commercial airline policies that all human (and other) remains ( which would include dead bodies, parts of dead bodies, or cremated remains) must be treated so as to be non-infectious. For a dead body (or parts) that would be either embalming or cremation, but there might be other methods that I can't think of right now

There has to be an exception for medically urgent transplants of viable tissue for immediate medical care, blood products, specimens for testing purposes.

I think you are seriously overestimating the ability of the DR to manage a complicated issue such as medical insurance for foreign visitors.

I was wondering if travel insurance covered costs associated with dying in a foreign country and possibly bringing remains back. I'm not sure how that would be worded or if that is a thing.
I don't mean that the DR or their hospitals would deal with insurance the Hotels are the ones that offer vacation packages they could support a hospital with the understanding that guest wouldn't be billed upfront. Depending on where the company is located, that could be a tax right off. I'm probably assuming these Resorts are owned by decent humans lol. I can dream. I can see where asking for payment up front to see a doctor when you are on vacation, drinking, eating new foods you might think never mind. The all inclusive packages are targeted at people that are traveling on a budget. I don't know if the hospitals in the DR charge what US hospitals do. Americans are used to a very broken health care system. Paying ahead might not come with hidden fees but I wouldn't trust that as a person from the US. Hospitals to me equal overcharging insurance companies and patients. Not going to get help at the early signs of sickness might not change anything. I remember hearing something about how meningitis outbreaks at colleges were made worse because kids didn't see a doctor and instead tried "pushing through" the early symptoms. Dorm rooms like hotels have people in one place. If they are eating, traveling together a contagious illness would be in the right place to spread. Poisoning actually sounds less scary. I think I'm putting too much faith in the resort travel industry.
 
I was wondering if travel insurance covered costs associated with dying in a foreign country and possibly bringing remains back. I'm not sure how that would be worded or if that is a thing.
I don't mean that the DR or their hospitals would deal with insurance the Hotels are the ones that offer vacation packages they could support a hospital with the understanding that guest wouldn't be billed upfront. Depending on where the company is located, that could be a tax right off. I'm probably assuming these Resorts are owned by decent humans lol. I can dream. I can see where asking for payment up front to see a doctor when you are on vacation, drinking, eating new foods you might think never mind. The all inclusive packages are targeted at people that are traveling on a budget. I don't know if the hospitals in the DR charge what US hospitals do. Americans are used to a very broken health care system. Paying ahead might not come with hidden fees but I wouldn't trust that as a person from the US. Hospitals to me equal overcharging insurance companies and patients. Not going to get help at the early signs of sickness might not change anything. I remember hearing something about how meningitis outbreaks at colleges were made worse because kids didn't see a doctor and instead tried "pushing through" the early symptoms. Dorm rooms like hotels have people in one place. If they are eating, traveling together a contagious illness would be in the right place to spread. Poisoning actually sounds less scary. I think I'm putting too much faith in the resort travel industry.

Its called Repatriation of Remains and has to be specified in the travel insurance policy. Many travel insurance policies don't have this so you must check carefully.

And it would likely require embalming or cremation, as per international commercial carrier regulations. I don't believe the Repatriation of Remains policies pay for the cost of the embalming or cremation.

And medical care is complicated, and heavily dependent on having access to medical records, imaging studies, laboratory information, medication history, etc. Then there is the language issue and the terminology. The US is struggling to get an electronic medical record as it is.

If you want to get good medical care while traveling, I recommend you stick to Europe or Japan.
 
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Now I wonder if there is a new insect out there. I know Hawaii recently found a new disease with rats.Rat lungworm disease: 3 new cases of potentially debilitating parasite confirmed in Hawaii

And China has found a new disease with ticks.New tick-borne disease discovered in China infecting dozens, researchers claim

I don’t think anyplace is safe. All of the tick borne illnesses in the US with the Powatassin that kills pretty fast.
I’m just gonna stay in the house now.
 
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