The Editor speaks: Can the problem in the Dominican Republic happen here?
In an Editorial carried by Richmond Times-Dispatch:
“At least nine Americans have died in the Dominican Republic since the summer of 2018 after falling ill in the Caribbean nation. Some of the deaths appear to have been under questionable — and similar — circumstances. The deaths have happened primarily at four resort hotels. Several of the tourists appear to have been stricken after drinking bottles of booze from minibars in their hotel rooms. The FBI has sent agents to the island to investigate the situation. Dominican Republic officials say they are working closely with the Americans to see if the deaths are connected.
“The well-publicized deaths have some Americans wondering if they should rethink vacation plans to the Caribbean nation. The nation’s health and tourism ministries insist the entire thing is overblown. On Friday, Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garcia spoke to reporters, assuring them: “It’s not true that there has been an avalanche of American tourists dying in our country, and it’s not true that we have mysterious deaths.” He says the autopsy reports show that the Americans who died in the past year all died of natural causes.
“A U.S. State Department official seemed to agree, stating that, generally speaking, “over 2.7 million U.S. citizens visit the Dominican Republic each year, and we have not seen an uptick in the number of U.S. citizen deaths reported to the department.”’
The Editorial seems to agree with this US Official and tells us to “Think of this: According to the State Department, between 2012 and 2018, 128 Americans died in the Dominican Republic from other than natural causes — that’s about 18 annually. While every one of those nine deaths is tragic, this doesn’t seem to be some kind of a plot against Americans.”
I don’t think anyone is possibly suggesting there is a dastardly plot against Americans but it is strange that these Americans all died at hotels close to one another, and even at the same hotel, just weeks apart.
The problem is no one knows why these people died. What is the cause?
Just imagine if something like this happened here?
I’m not a betting man but my belief is we would have found out the reason why.
All these Americans died, according to the Tourism Minister of The Dominican Republic, from “natural causes”.
When a Tourism Minister says that, it is not a very reliable source.
The families of the victims definitely don’t take his word and why should they?
Investigating on the Internet there is a big difference of opinion in the quality of healthcare from the hospitals there.
Expat.com says “at the public hospitals, available in every large town, the standard of care is average at best and they should only be used in dire emergencies.”
That statement alone makes me conclude the problem in the Dominican Republic won’t happen here.
