Colorado Man Dies After Getting Sick While on Vacation in Dominican Republic

Samuel Allegri
By Samuel Allegri
June 27, 2019US News
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Colorado Man Dies After Getting Sick While on Vacation in Dominican Republic
A man is seen on a beach in the Dominican Republic in a file photo. (Erika Santelices/AFP/Getty Images)

A man from Denver is the latest American tourist to have died after going on vacation to the Dominican Republic, his family said on June 26.

Khalid Adkins was having a great time with his daughter in the Dominican Republic, when he suddenly became sick, reported Fox 31.

“My dad was just like, ‘something bit me’ on the side of his leg and then he was like ‘but it really hurts, is it supposed to hurt like that?'” said his daughter Mia Atkins to Fox 31.

“On Sunday, when He tried to fly back to the U.S., he was dripping with sweat and vomited in the plane’s bathroom, he was then forced to disembark. He is in the hospital extremely sick we are being told by the doctors in the DR!!” said his family’s Gofundme page.

When he attempted to fly back to the United States on Sunday, he was sweating a lot. He also vomited in the plane’s bathroom, according to his sister-in-law Marla Strick. The ill-befallen man was then made to disembark.

Subsequently, Adkins was hospitalized in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

Before leaving this world, Strick said that officials, “transferred him to Santo Domingo and [said] that his breathing is really bad and that his kidneys were failing.”

Doctors said they could try to find dialysis in Santo Domingo or take him back to the United States.

His family said they were having trouble communicating with hospital staff, and as of June 24, they weren’t sure of his diagnosis.

“He said his leg started to swell and that’s why he couldn’t get up. And he started sweating and vomiting. He is just yelling and in pain, so he couldn’t talk to me,” Strick said.

It’s not clear where he was staying.

hard rock hotel
The entrance of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic on June 20, 2019. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The New York Post reported that the hospital told them that he could take a $20,000 air ambulance flight home.

As a result, before he died, his family set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for the trip home.

The Gofund page had raised over $22,200 of its $20,000 goal at the time of this publication.

“I am absolutely detested to make this update but we have lost Khalid!!! We found out this morning that he passed away last night!! I am at a loss for words we have no explanation of what happened all they will say is he get sick!! We need to get his body home anything helps please!! We really want to know what happened!” the page said.

Around a dozen American tourists have died in the past year while visiting the country.

Not Unusual

The Dominican government has said that the number of deaths is not out of the ordinary, adding that they aren’t related.

Autopsies show the tourists died of natural causes, Tourism Minister Francisco Javier García told reporters.

With some 3.2 million U.S. tourists visiting the Dominican Republic last year, he said, it’s not unusual for eight people to die while on vacation over any six-month period. Dominican officials say they are confident the three deaths still under investigation were also from natural causes.

“We want the truth to prevail,” García said, according to The Associated Press. “There is nothing to hide here.”

The first deaths to make headlines, and still the most mysterious, were those of a couple who seemingly died at the same time in the same hotel room. The bodies of Edward Nathaniel Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49, were found May 30 in their room at the Grand Bahia Principe La Romana hotel. Several medications were found in the room, including an anti-inflammatory drug, an opioid, and blood-pressure medicine, García said.

Autopsies found pulmonary edema, an accumulation of fluid in the lungs frequently caused by heart disease.

The Epoch Times reporter Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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