A 15-year-old Argentinian girl has gone into a coma during a family vacation to the Dominican Republic.
Candela Saccone and her family traveled to Punta Cana on June 12 and were scheduled to return home on the 19th.
However, the morning they were supposed to leave, the teen started feeling dizzy, dehydrated, and nauseous—which prompted her family to take her to a medical center—according to the child’s mother, Natalia Knetch.
#Turismo La turista argentina Candela Aylen Saccone, de 15 años, ingresada en un hospital de SD tras sufrir un grave episodio de salud derivado de una diabetes permanece en estado crítico, aunque presenta una leve mejoría, informaron este lunes fuentes médicas. | #Super7FM pic.twitter.com/TW5PFwWVbq
— #Super7FM (@super7fm) June 24, 2019
The girl’s doctor—Freddy Contín —confirmed to CNN that Saccone was diagnosed with diabetic ketoacidosis.
Knetch told CNN that the family was surprised since—according to her—Saccone had never been diagnosed with diabetes and their family has no history of the disease.
The teen was transferred from Punta Cana to the Plaza De La Salud general hospital in Santo Domingo because—according to the Argentine foreign ministry—the first medical center “Did not have sufficient equipment to treat her.”
Dominican health minister Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas told CNN that the minor is “Under control in a good-level hospital center” and that they await her prompt recovery.
The Dominican Republic’s health minister insists the recent deaths of U.S. tourists are unrelated: “What do we have here? Tourists who arrive with preexisting conditions & die in this country as they do in all countries,” Dr. Rafael Sanchez Cardenas says https://t.co/kT8BXOMiel pic.twitter.com/5REMEao4UP
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) June 25, 2019
Despite what happened to her daughter, Knetch says the island is not an unsafe place and she is thankful to the staff at the hospital where her daughter is currently being treated.
The most recent American to die in the Dominican Republic, died from respiratory and heart failure after a long history of related-health problems, the country’s Attorney General’s office said, citing a preliminary autopsy report.
Caruso had suffered from hypertension, heart disease, and pulmonary disease for a long time, the office said.
Caruso is the 10th known American to die in the Dominican Republic in the last year.
Are deaths of Americans in the Dominican Republic on the rise?
Data shows that “these deaths, while tragic, are not out of the ordinary,” Michael @Smerconish says. https://t.co/7O25ug6zRY pic.twitter.com/Fr1mTwRt4m
— CNN (@CNN) June 22, 2019
Caruso had been battling hypertension for nine years, and had a long history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the attorney general’s office said.
New and previous heart attacks were detected by the autopsy, the office said. Caruso was a smoker and drank alcohol, per the autopsy results.
The FBI has a team in the Dominican Republic assisting with the toxicology tests of three of the 10 known American deaths.
WASHINGTON – A team of FBI agents has been conducting interviews in recent weeks in the Dominican Republic … http://t.co/UyCzqQq5
— Indianapolis Post (@indypost) February 16, 2013
Some of those deaths could be related to alcohol. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana, where two of the deaths occurred, said Sunday it would remove liquor dispensers from guest room minibars.