# Let's play doctor. (Couple dies from mystery illness in Fiji.) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 8, 2019, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200 "2019-06-08T02:58:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/1 "2019-06-08T02:58:34Z")
[A Texas couple die in Fiji](https://www.yahoo.com/gma/throwing-8-hours-texas-couple-died-fiji-texted-193800641--abc-news-topstories.html). Symptoms include vomiting for 8 hours, diarrhea, and numb hands. > [@](#): > > The Fiji Health Ministry has been working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to determine the malady that took the lives of two seemingly healthy people. Speculation? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/2 "2019-06-08T03:10:47Z")
It’s probably exposure to a pesticide or strong industrial cleaning chemical. Here’s a 2015 case of pesticide use at a resort. The sudden illness certainly sounds like a toxic exposure to some chemical. > **[Poisoned teens struggle to eat, walk - CNN](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2015/09/10/us/virgin-islands-pesticide-investigation/index.html)** > > Steve Esmond and family were poisoned by pesticide methyl bromide while vacationing in U.S. Virgin Islands; family's case against Terminix going to mediation. > [@](#): > > The teens and their parents fell gravely ill and suffered seizures during a March vacation to St. John. The family was exposed to methyl bromide, a restricted-use pesticide. Recovery from their nerve damage has been slow and agonizing for the whole family, but it’s been the worst for the boys. The brothers were in medically induced comas for weeks. They are now conscious, family attorney James Maron said, but they are barely able to move. > > Six months after the horrifying incident, their father, Steve Esmond, is slowly getting better as well, but suffers from severe tremors, struggles to speak and can’t turn the pages of a book, Maron said. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/3 "2019-06-08T03:26:42Z")
I believe that this was the result of some kind of poisoning, as were the mysterious deaths at the resort in the Dominican Republic; whether it be CO, pesticides, etc. will need to be determined by a toxicologist. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/4 "2019-06-08T03:27:16Z")
It’s probably Lupus. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/5 "2019-06-08T03:30:26Z")
At least one couple that got sick at the same DR hotel but survived think it was pesticides or organophosphates and I think were treated by a doctor for it. They were younger and survived but still felt terrible effects, I think older people with weaker hearts which I believe the couple and the doctor both had histories of health issues and just couldn’t survive the effects. ---
**Author:** ![UnwittingAmericans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d9b06d/32.png) [@UnwittingAmericans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwittingAmericans)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/6 "2019-06-08T13:25:02Z")
Beach apple. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/7 "2019-06-08T14:19:43Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > It’s probably Lupus. Fine, I’ll do it: It’s NEVER Lupus! ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/8 "2019-06-08T14:25:28Z")
As a WAG they probably ingested a toxin, either a biological or chemical one. However I don’t ‘think’ a biological toxin would make you that sick that fast. So its probably chemical. I have no idea what one though, or how they got it. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/9 "2019-06-08T14:59:01Z")
I doubt it was a water borne toxin; I hear such great things about Fiji water. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/10 "2019-06-08T15:48:34Z")
> [@Isosleepy](#): > > > [@Riemann](#): > > > > It’s probably Lupus. > > Fine, I’ll do it: It’s NEVER Lupus! Since you’re referring to the TV show House, MD, I want to point out that it was based, in part, on the [Diagnosis column](https://www.nytimes.com/column/diagnosis) in The New York Times Sunday Magazine. It’s written by Dr Lisa Sanders, an internist with Yale-New Haven Hospital. In each column, she describes a weird or unusual case, what tests were done and how it was eventually resolved. Not all of the cases are her patients, of course. Many columns relate cases treated by other doctors. It’s a fun read. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/11 "2019-06-08T16:52:42Z")
I read somewhere else that the likely cause is [organophosphate poisoning](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320350.php). ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/12 "2019-06-08T16:57:53Z")
I was also going to guess some neurotoxin. Whether from some weird marine animal or a cleaning compound, I couldn’t guess. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/13 "2019-06-13T11:11:39Z")
Decades ago I read a book called “medical mysteries” where they talked about organophosphate poisoning. Nasty, and sounds much like the deaths. But we don’t know if that’s what killed all the victims. For that matter, aren’t organophosphates illegal? If they were routinely used in the Dominican Republic, you would have expected more deaths. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/14 "2019-06-13T12:46:54Z")
There are many organophosphate pesticides currently licensed for use in the U.S. (36 according to an E.P.A. website, though I’m not sure how current that info is), some of them not legal for home use (such as chlorpyrifos). It wouldn’t surprise me if regulation was less stringent in other countries such as the Dominican Republic. The symptoms cited by [this couple](https://www.ajc.com/news/national/colorado-couple-says-they-were-poisoned-dominican-resort-where-americans-died/DYTC5y12uPhEufBlxh1XRJ/) recently vacationing there sound very much like the cholinergic overload symptoms you can get with significant organophosphate exposure, including drooling and abdominal cramping. If properly used, many of these chemicals don’t cause human health problems. I have rarely used malathion in recent years - it stinks but breaks down quickly and has relatively low toxicity. If one gets careless or uses a product not intended for spraying around human habitation, bad things can happen. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/15 "2019-06-13T13:39:39Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > If properly used, many of these chemicals don’t cause human health problems. I have rarely used malathion in recent years - it stinks but breaks down quickly and has relatively low toxicity. If one gets careless or uses a product not intended for spraying around human habitation, bad things can happen. My guess is that someone was using a more potent organophosphate or carbamate pesticide than is commonly used in the US, and probably outside the approved on-label uses. Like say… saturating a mattress to get rid of bed bugs or something similarly insane. It takes a pretty hefty amount of most of the common ones to actually affect a person like that- they’re aimed at bugs, not people. (the humanicide equivalent would be Tabun (GA), Sarin(GB), Soman(GD), and VX- nerve gases. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-play-doctor-couple-dies-from-mystery-illness-in-fiji/835200/16 "2019-06-13T17:56:04Z")
Let me hop in my TARDIS first, i’ll go back to the day before they got on the ship and warn them, that oughta’ save 'em….