Dominican Republic widow claims officials pressured her into quickie cremation as another victim dies with ‘green foam’ around mouth
A WIDOW claims officials repeatedly pressured her to cremate her husband following his sudden death in the Dominican Republic.
David Harrison, from Maryland, US, died in July 2018 on a family holiday at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana.
His devastated wife Dawn McCoy said she was trying to figure out how to get his body back to the US when officials pressured her to cremate him, reports the
She told : "They kept trying to get me to cremate my husband. They kept telling me that it would be considerably cheaper to cremate him.
"I want to say they asked me probably three or four times before they sent him home. I was like, ‘No, no, no. Send him home. I want to make sure it’s him that’s coming home."
Dawn said she was then hit with numerous medical bills, including from the hotel doctor, ambulance, hospital and funeral home when she checked out of the resort.
She explained: “The hotel asked me to call them when I was on my way out and that they would meet me personally, so I called them and told them that we were getting ready to check out.
"They pulled me aside and handed me a doctor bill.”
Harrison started to feel sick a few days into the family trip and complained of an upset stomach. He woke up in a full body sweat on July 14 and couldn’t speak — and Dawn remembers a pungent smell coming from his pores. Hours later, he was dead.
His death was ruled due to pulmonary edema and a heart attack.
It comes as a ninth tourist died from a mystery illness in the Dominican Republic days after seven school kids fell violently ill at another resort on the island.
'GREEN FOAM'
Joseph Allen, 55, from New Jersey, was found dead in his room at the Terra Linda hotel in Sosua on June 13, the State Department said.
Eight other US nationals have died on the island in the last year, including 62-year-old Mark Hulburt Sr, who had "something green foaming from his mouth when his wife found him dead last June.
Hi son Mark Jr said told AZ Family: “It was something that came way out of left field.
"She woke up, and he didn’t.
"She told me that as she found him that he had something green coming from his mouth.”
STUDENTS FELL ILL
Last week, it emerged that seven high school graduates fell ill after eating sushi at the Hard Rock Hotel in Punta Cana.
Another person died at the Excellence Resorts which is also in Punta Cana on the east of the island.
The bodies of four other holidaymakers have been found at the Bahia Principe hotels which are located in the south east of the Caribbean paradise.
The FBI has launched a probe into whether the tourists drank tainted booze before they died.
Meanwhile, the heartbroken mother of a Bronx teacher who died on a hike in the Dominican Republic suspects foul play was involved - despite authorities claiming the cause was a heart attack.
Terrance Terrance Richmond, 56, collapsed and fell in August last year during a mountain excursion near Jarabacoa, where he was on vacation, according to news station
His mum Annette told the channel: "He was healthy. I know they’re lying.
"He was beaten because his knuckles were bruised all up. He had a fractured skull and he had a bruise on his back like he had been kicked.”
It has also emerged that a woman from Virginia, who travelled to the Dominican Republic for her honeymoon, has became the latest US tourist to become “violently ill”, a report said.
Skylar Martin and her husband, Derek Martin, were also staying at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana last week when the newlywed got sick and needed to be hospitalized, .
Timeline of deaths
- June 2018: Yvette Monique Sport, 51, of Glenside, Pennsylvania, dies after drinking from the minibar at at a Bahia Principe hotel in Punta Cana
- July 2018: David Harrison dies while on holiday at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana
- April 2019: John Corcoran, brother of US TV star Barbara, dies from heart attack
- April 14: Robert Bell Wallace, 67, of California in hospital four days after falling ill
- May 25: Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, of Pennsylvannia, dies within hours of consuming a drink from a resort minibar at Bahia Principe Hotel in La Romana
- May 30: Cynthia Day, 49, and Nathaniel Holmes, 63, of Maryland, are found dead in their hotel rooms
- June 10: Leyla Cox, 53, of Staten Island, New York, is found dead in her hotel room
- June 13: Joseph Allen, 55, from New Jersey, dies in room at the Terra Linda hotel in Sosua
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“We had heard and read some worrisome articles about visiting Punta Cana but decided to carry on with our plans,” Skylar wrote in a post on Facebook.
“I became violently ill Saturday evening and was in and out of consciousness, vomiting every 15-20 minutes for 6 hours.”
The woman said she was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a bacterial blood infection. She was given antibiotics but the cause of the illness was still a mystery.
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