Poisoning and loss of consciousness: how a vacation of tourists in Mexico turns into hell

One year after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel magazine published disturbing stories from tourists vacationing at high-end all-inclusive resorts in Mexico, the number of accidents continues to grow.

Фото: Depositphotos

So, recently 51-year-old mother and two adult daughters at the same time lost consciousness after drinking tequila. In another case, the 60-year-old couple of spouses began to vomit, which ended in loss of consciousness after two Margarita cocktails. And another woman from Los Angeles who did not drink alcohol was in prison for trying to help a woman who passed out in the pool.

Since the beginning of July, 2017, Sentinel magazine has heard horrible stories from more than 170 tourists. They talked about injuries, illnesses and deaths that occurred after drinking alcohol at resorts and tourist cities in Mexico.

Travelers have reported regaining consciousness after consuming small or moderate amounts of alcohol—in some cases a single drink—to find themselves robbed, raped, hospitalized, or sent to prison.

Many have reported encountering hostile resort workers, hospital staff and police officers. Many have said that the US State Department has helped them a little in these cases. Travelers found that US officials at consulates in Mexico are in no hurry to respond to appeals. They were not allowed to investigate crimes, offer legal advice, or even translate into English, according to the Journal Sentinel investigation.

And when tourists tried to warn others about what had happened to them, using the popular website TripAdvisor, Sentinel magazine discovered that TripAdvisor deleted dozens of similar messages. TripAdvisor later apologized, promising to better train the company's moderators, and took other steps. The US Federal Trade Commission announced in February that it was studying TripAdvisor business practices.

An investigation by Journal Sentinel also revealed that travel agencies were unable to warn tourists about the problems in Mexico when they booked their trips.

The Office of the Inspector General of the State Department is investigating how consular workers in Mexico handled cases.

Following the publication of Sentinel’s stories, the State Department began tracking alcohol-related incidents in Mexico. As of June, the department said it had received 22 applications.

Most resorts, where Sentinel journalists were able to reach, said that they knew about the incidents and were investigating them, but could not find any signs of falsified alcohol. However, in February the Mexican government closed two distilleries on the black market and confiscated almost 20 000 gallons of illegal tequila.

Here are some recent incidents reported by the Sentinel magazine.

Vomiting and loss of consciousness after the "Margarita" on the beach

Photos from the family archive

Richard Peterson and his wife Marion from Appleton, Wisconsin, rested on a cruise in February. They decided to spend the day at the Nachi Cocom Beach Club, on a private beach in Cozumel.

60-year-old couple ordered Margarita from the bar. Drinks brought under a canopy, where they sat, said Richard Peterson.

After two such drinks, somewhere in 30 minutes, Peterson and his wife began to get nauseated. A woman came down to the shoreline and vomited. A few minutes later, Peterson followed her.

A few minutes later, an employee of a beach club approached, asking if everything was all right and whether he should call a paramedic. The couple refused.

Then the Petersons returned to their shed and both fainted. When they woke up, the same employee approached them again and offered food from the kitchen. They abandoned and headed back to their cruise ship.

Only after returning to the cruise ship, they began to suspect that alcohol was fake.

Officials at the Nachi Cocom Beach Club said they did not receive complaints from the couple after their visit. The resort researched and found no problems with alcohol, a spokesman for Sentinel magazine said.

Maternal intuition saved son

Photos from the family archive

Jennifer Drinkvin and her husband, Castle Pines, Colorado, took their three children to Mexico in May 2017. Their 19 year old son Bobby drank beer with his family at dinner.

Then they went to the exhibition in Iberostar Paraiso del Mar, where they stopped. Bobby did not order alcoholic beverages and just enjoyed the show. The rest of the family returned to their room around 11 in the evening.

After about 10 minutes 45, Jennifer had a strange hunch. She called Bobby. When he answered, she realized that something was wrong. She barely recognized his voice.

She rushed back to the club and found that he was reeling in a corner of the bar. An empty glass was on the next table. He turned pale, his eyes rolled.

The mother insisted that the resort workers call an ambulance. “We were both scared to death,” she said of herself and her husband. “We thought we were going to lose him.” When paramedics arrived, they refused to treat Bobby or even help him. Drinkvin and her husband themselves put him on a stretcher and loaded him into an ambulance. Jennifer went with her son to the hospital.

Doctors said he was intoxicated. The medical records reviewed by Sentinel show that the blood alcohol content was 0,02, well below any scientific definition of intoxication.

The son stayed in the hospital for about eight hours and slowly recovered.

“If I hadn’t come back, he would have died,” Drinkwin said.

13 unconscious watches and bruises

In December, Deborah Swann and her two adult daughters rested in the Paradisus Los Cabo pool when the bartender brought them tequila shots.

Swann hesitated because they did not order drinks from the pool bar. But the woman and her daughters took them, assuming that the husband ordered.

They drank - and that's the last thing she and her daughters remember before losing consciousness and waking up only 13 hours later.

During the ensuing chaos, trying to put his wife and two daughters in the room, her husband discovered that one of them had disappeared. He found his daughter after about 15 minutes in front of the hotel room, surrounded by male hotel staff.

Swann said it was scary to think about what might have happened if her husband had not appeared and had not found his daughter.

Mother woke up with a strong headache and a big bruise on her leg. She did not remember how she hit and how she got into the room.

Swann's husband complained to the hotel management, saying that he was worried about the possibility that they were under the influence of a drug or drank low-quality alcohol. The management assured him that they would investigate what happened, but the family did not hear from them anymore.

The next day, the bartender, who previously brought tequila, mocked them, asking how they feel and whether they want more tequila. The couple left a review on TripAdvisor and added that their family will never rest in Mexico again.

"Feeling like I was awakened by anesthesia."

Photos from the family archive

It was July 2017 of the year, and Jennifer Santel had not heard of any problems with people losing consciousness after drinking a small amount of alcohol at resorts in Mexico. She, her husband, and their adult children from Bartelso, Illinois, went to Iberostar Paraiso Maya with another couple and their children.

The parents had three to four drinks at the floating bar - including a couple called "Purple Rain." After which they felt bad. They were taken to a room where all four vomited and lost consciousness. After 3-5 hours they woke up and wondered what had happened.

“When I woke up at 7 in the evening, it was like when I awoke from anesthesia after a gall bladder operation. This is different from waking up after sleeping or hangover. Then I began to suspect that we had used drugs. ”

Returning to the US, Santel contacted his travel agent to inform the company about what happened.

The travel agent then contacted Apple Vacations, and an Apple representative notified Iberostar. The resort apologized, but denied any deliberate falsification of beverages.

Pineapple drink became a reason for divorce

On the second day of their stay in Cancun in April 2016, Kale Smith and her husband drank in the resort’s main bar during lunch with other family members who had gathered for the wedding.

The bartender brought Kaylee a special pineapple drink, which she did not order. Everyone was joking that the bartender must have thought she was good.

After three drinks, Smith’s behavior began to spin out of control. She jumped on her husband's aunt and got up other things that were not her own. She was taken to the room where she turned off.

After 24 hours, she woke up, embarrassed and did not remember anything that happened.

Smith said that her husband was very angry with her, and this situation provoked discord in their relationship.

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