PUNTA CANA, D.R. (THECOUNT) — At least 54 members of a Jimmy Buffett fan club from Oklahoma who traveled to the Dominican Republic in April got sick, the group’s travel agent confirmed.
Dana Flowers, a member of the Central Oklahoma Parrothead Association, is also the group’s travel agent. He said about 54 out of the 114 visitors who stayed at the Hotel Riu Palace Macao in Punta Cana fell ill during the trip.
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“It was headaches, vomiting, fever, diarrhea, severe diarrhea and chills and fevers that type of thing,” Flowers said. “About the third day in, we started to notice people not making it to events that we had scheduled and that’s when we realized that people were getting sick,” reports Fox5NY.
He said at that time, visitors just assumed that it was “food poisoning or something of that nature.”
“The common thread with everybody that did get sick is that they swam in the swim-up bar pool and/or they had a drink from the swim-up bar,” Flowers said. “So it could be related to that pool.”
Two members from the group tested positive for salmonella upon their return home after seeing doctors, he said.
Everyone from the trip has now recovered, except for the woman still suffering from salmonella, according to Flowers.
Hotel Riu Palace Macao and representatives for Jimmy Buffett did not immediately respond for comment.
Avenel, New Jersey resident, Joseph Allen, was found dead in his hotel room at Terra Linda in the Dominican Republic on Thursday, according to family members.
Allen, 55, never made it home from his vacation last week in the , becoming the latest American to die there in an unusual manner.
Allen’s sister, Jamie Reed, claims her brother spent a lot of time in the D.R. over the years and went down last week to celebrate a friend’s birthday, WPXI reported on Tuesday.
Reed described Allen as “for the most part healthy” with no major medical problems.
A State Department official confirmed Allen’s death.
New York Woman, Leyla Cox, has been identified as the American who died recently while vacationing in the Dominican Republic.
Cox, 53, died of an apparent heart attack on June 10, just two days before she was scheduled to return home. Cox is sadly joining several other seemingly healthy U.S. citizens who have died in the country since January.
Hotel officials said they discovered Cox deceased in her hotel room. She was travelling alone to the D.R. despite her family’s warning to not traveling alone to the area.
Cox’s son William says Dominican officials failed to order additional toxicology reports on his mother which may have revealed other contributing factors in her death.
Despite the autopsy that ruled Cox’s death a heart attack, William remains skeptical after all the recent deaths on the island.
“I have a right to be suspicious,” reports Local10 on Saturday.
Cox’s wish was to be cremated. Once her family picks up her ashes, they plan to carry out her final wish, which was to have the ashes spread over the Florida Keys.
Surely Miller, of Pennsylvania, has become the ninth American to die recently in the Dominican Republic over the last year.
Miller, a 42-year-old yoga teacher in excellent health, was found lifeless by fishermen on Tuesday – a day after she vanished while swimming at a hotel beach.
She was located two nautical miles from the beach where she was swimming, reported La Nación Dominicana.
A fisherman spotted the body and took it to shore.
Authorities said they were going to conduct an autopsy to confirm the cause of death, reports NTD.
Miller vanished on Tuesday afternoon in a strong wave, her friend said. She was seen raising her hands but the witness was unable to save her.
She operated a yoga studio in Slatington.
Miller’s education in the practice included studies in New York, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.
Shark Tank star, Barbara Corcoran, is mourning the death of her brother, John, who mysteriously died in his hotel room in the Dominican Republic.
The circumstances of the death of the 60-year man sound eerily familiar to the a half dozen other mysterious U.S. tourist deaths in the country over the past year, according to reports.
Corcoran told TMZ, her brother was in the Dominican Republic with a friend on his annual April vacation, when he suddenly died of a “heart attack.”
Corcoran says, as far as she knows, there’s been no autopsy performed on her brother.
The victim was discovered by his friend who was staying in the same suite.
Corcoran told TMZ, John was retired but owned a successful roofing company in New Jersey. She calls him “my favorite brother” among her 9 siblings and says he had a larger-than-life personality and would have been great on TV.
There’s been no funeral scheduled, but a memorial service is planned soon.
Allentown, Pennsylvania woman, Miranda Schaupp-Werner, has been identified as the woman who died while vacationing at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana hotel, days before a Maryland couple was found dead at the same hotel.
Schaupp-Werner, 41, had just arrived to the hotel with her husband when she drank from the room minibar and collapsed and died. Her sudden death came just days before Maryland Couple, 63-year-old Edward Nathaniel Holmes and 49-year-old Cynthia Ann Day, were found dead at the same resort.
The couple checked in at the Grand Bahia Principe hotel in La Romana, went straight to their room and began to relax.
“At one point, she was sitting there happily smiling and taking pictures and the next moment she was in acute pain and called out for Dan and she collapsed,” reports WFMZ.
Schaup-Werner, an Allentown psycho-therapist, died of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, according to hotel medical staff.
Dominican Republic National Police say Holmes and Day died of the same cause as Schaup-Werner.
Following the couple’s death, the hotel posted the following statement:
“There were no signs of violence..” and adding, “We are in complete collaboration with them (authorities), but as the investigation is ongoing, we have no further information to share.”
The FBI and the State Department are now investigating the deaths.
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Geo quick facts: La Romana is a city on the Dominican Republic’s Caribbean coast and a gateway to nearby resort areas. Overlooking the Chavón River, Altos de Chavón is a re-created 16th-century Mediterranean village with artists’ workshops. An obelisk painted with colorful images of local life stands in the city center. South of the city is Catalina Island, with beaches, coral reefs and the wrecked ship of pirate William Kidd – wikipedia.