A terrifying photo shows two Oklahoma college students allegedly being drugged at a Cancun pool bar. One of the young tourists fears she may have taken fentanyl.
Zara Hull, her boyfriend Jake Sinder and her friend Kaylie Pitze were in Cancun with a group of friends for a dream vacation when their trip turned into a nightmare on August 2.
“We both got water and within two minutes Jake turned around and we both went to the bar with our heads down,” Hull, 20, said. CBS News.
Hull said she went into convulsions before losing consciousness and becoming “virtually paralyzed.”
Snider rushed her to the hospital and stayed with her while staff reportedly demanded thousands of dollars for treatment.
A terrifying photo shows the moment two Oklahoma college students were possibly drugged at a Cancun swim-up bar
Zara Hull and Kaylie Pitze fell seriously ill during their dream vacation to Cancun
“They had raised the money they wanted. The base was $10,000 so they would even look at me,” Hull said.
“They held me captive. We are students; we don’t have the money they ask for.”
Meanwhile, she continued to have seizures throughout the night and doctors had to intubate her.
“The hospital did NOT treat her, they gave her a ton of medications to keep her under,” Jake’s mother, Stephanie 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 had to get her back to the US.”
But hospital staff demanded even more money to free her, and the air ambulance to bring Hull back to the United States cost $26,000.
Zara Hull’s boyfriend, Jake Snider, rushed her to the hospital and stayed with her while staff reportedly demanded thousands of dollars
Hull was initially unable to breathe on his own and was placed on a ventilator
The day after drinking the suspicious drink, the group booked a private jet to fly them to Dallas, where Hull remains in hospital as doctors continue to try to figure out what happened to her.
At first she was unable to breathe on her own and was put on a ventilator.
Doctors say they found no abnormalities in Hull, despite her having suffered at least 18 convulsions.
They say it’s possible she was sedated.
“We believe it may have been synthetic fentanyl,” Hull said. KVOR.
She needs physical therapy to learn to walk again.
Kaylie didn’t end up in the hospital, but she did have a difficult 24 hours after she may have been sedated.
“It’s now three days later and she still doesn’t feel like herself,” Stephanie Snider said.
Hull says she now worries she will never get better
Pitze struggled 24 hours after allegedly being drugged in Cancun
‘None of the girls can remember what happened after they took their last drink, which happened to be a glass of WATER.’
The students do not want to reveal the names of their hotel or hospital, for fear of their safety.
The families have started several GoFundMe pages asking for help covering the students’ medical expenses.
Since returning to the U.S., Hull has made some progress, her family said.
On Sunday, she was able to breathe on her own again and was taken off the ventilator, a family friend wrote in an online fundraiser for her medical expenses.
The two students from Oklahoma were traveling with their friends
“She is awake and able to communicate with her family and care team,” the update said.
On Monday evening, her family friend told her she was able to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom with some help.
Hull has since been removed from intensive care as a precaution and is now in the neurology department.
Still, she says she’s having a hard time, even though her friends came to visit her in the hospital.
“It’s so scary because there are times when I think, ‘Am I going to get out of this?’” she said.