Two Oklahoma college girls on a dream vacation wound up dangerously sick after getting a drink at a resort bar in Mexico.
Zara Hull and Kaylie Pitze, students at Oklahoma Christian University, took a photo at the Cancun beach and then headed to the resort pool on Friday when their dream vacation with their boyfriends turned into a nightmare.
The two girls are now back in the US, but Hull remains stuck in the hospital as doctors continue to work to determine what may have happened to them.
The girls had ordered a glass of water from the pool bar, when they suddenly slumped over, and Zara, 20, started having some ‘jerking movements,’ her boyfriend’s mother, Stephanie Snider, told KOCO.
‘The last memory I have is just walking in the pool,’ Pitze told News 9.
Zara Hull and Kaylie Pitze, students at Oklahoma Christian University, became dangerously sick on their dream vacation to Cancun
The two Oklahoma Christian University students were on a trip with their boyfriends
The girls were then sent to their rooms in wheelchairs, with Pitze later recounting: ‘We were out, couldn’t walk, couldn’t talk, couldn’t do anything.’
The following morning, Pitze said, ‘It hurt to open my eyes, I was very nauseous, I couldn’t move.’
She then found out that Hull was sent to a local Mexican hospital overnight.
‘I started having convulsions in my stomach, so they called 911,’ Hull recounted.
But upon arrival at the hospital, Mexican officials demanded a $10,000 deposit to begin her treatment, her family has said.
She then received a CT scan and was placed in the ICU, while her boyfriend, Jake, had to pay $200 to stay in a room at the hospital overnight, an online fundraiser for Hulls’ medical bills says.
Meanwhile, her seizures continued throughout the night, and the Mexican doctors intubated her.
‘The hospital was NOT treating her, they were pumping her full of so many drugs to keep her sedated, Snider wrote on Facebook.
‘They intubated her and told Jake it was ‘sedation for the MRI,’ she continued. ‘There was no reason to sedate her, let alone intubate her.’
‘We knew we needed to get her back and to the US.’
Hull, 20, was sent to a Mexican hospital after she started having convulsions
Her boyfriend, Jake, had to pay $200 to stay in a room at the hospital overnight
Hull’s family and family friends then reached out to the US Embassy, and they advised them to get her back to the States immediately.
But hospital staff demanded even more money to release her, and the air ambulance to bring Hull back to the United States cost $26,000.
‘We tried to say they had to release her, and I was told she would not be released until we paid,’ Snider said.
‘We were told the amount would just continue to go up until they were paid.’
Hospitals back home kept refusing to admit Hull because the hospital in Mexico would not send over paperwork.
‘They tried to say they didn’t even have a fax machine to send it,’ Snider said.
Hull’s family friends said the hospital in Mexico kept her sedated
Hospitals back in the United States refused to admit Hull because the Mexican hospital refused to send over the paperwork
Fortunately, a family friend picked up the tab and Hull arrived in the United States late Saturday night.
Snider’s son was eventually able to get a partial list of some of the medication that the Mexican doctors gave Hull ‘and the doctors said that nothing they gave her was helping her, it was just meds to keep her very sedated,’ she said.
The doctors have since run multiple tests, and Hull’s family says they are out $60,000 between getting her home and getting her treatments.
But still they do not have any answers about what may have happened – but they suspect Hull’s and Pitze’s water was spiked with synthetic fentanyl.
‘We don’t have a lot of answers, we don’t know a lot, we don’t know what she was given in there hospital down there, we don’t know what she was given at the resort,’ Rilee Works, Hull’s mother, told News 9.
Hull says she now worries that she will never be able to get better
Hull’s family says they are out $60,000 between getting her home and getting her treatments
But since being back in the United States, Hull has made some progress, her family has said.
On Sunday, she was able to start breathing on her own and was taken off a ventilator, a family friend wrote in an online fundraiser for her medical expenses.
‘She is awake and able to communicate with family and her health care team,’ the update said.
Then on Monday night, her family friend said she was able to get out of bed, and with help she was able to walk to the bathroom.
She has since been moved out of the ICU and is now in a neurology unit out of precaution, even though she does not have neurological problems.
Still, she says she is struggling – even as her friends from Mexico came to visit her in the hospital.
‘It’s so scary because there’s times I am like, ‘Am I going to make it out of this?’ she said.
Pitze had a tough 24 hours after she was apparently drugged, and apparently still does not feel back to herself
Pitze, meanwhile, did not end up in the hospital, but had a tough 24 hours after she was apparently drugged.
‘It’s been three days now and she still doesn’t feel back to herself,’ Snider wrote.
‘Neither of the girls have any memory of what happened after they took that last drink, which happened to have been a glass of WATER.’
She went on to say that the situation has ’caused so much anxiety and stress for our families.
‘Something must be done to stop these things from happening. It’s every parent’s nightmare,’ Snider said.
‘Closing my eyes at night and thinking of what COULD HAVE happened is unbearable.’
Snider then urged other parents to stop their children from going on such vacations.
‘There is a real problem happening with young people, especially girls, being drugged unknowingly, trafficking and extortion of money.
‘Hug your babies (and even your not-such-babies anymore) tight tonight and pray this never happens to your family.’