Two Canadian families allege that a luxury Cancun resort served them contaminated food that made them sick and then attempted to detain them to prevent them from leaving.
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Jesslyn Schigol, along with her husband and two sons, spent their Christmas vacation at the Royalton Splash Riviera Cancun in Mexico. However, according to the CBC, the holiday took a turn when her husband became severely ill on Christmas morning.
During their Christmas vacation at the same resort, Allison Field, her husband Andy Yackulic, and their four-year-old son suffered a severe bout of illness, describing the experience as being left “vomiting and shaking” due to what appeared to be food poisoning.
Schigol sought help from the resort’s front desk on Christmas Day due to her husband’s severe condition. However, she was left shocked by their response.
“The front desk presented me with this NDA and said, ‘You must sign this. This is a must, or else we’re not sending the doctor to come see your husband,'” she recalled to the CBC.Â
Of course, non-disclosure agreements are commonly used by employers to prevent employees from sharing sensitive information related to their work or management.
“I said, ‘There’s no way I’m signing this as it pretty much says you can’t say anything, you can’t come after the hotel,” she added.”‘They said they will not send the doctor unless I sign this.”
Schigol claimed the NDA stated that receiving treatment from the resort’s doctor meant they couldn’t hold the resort liable or speak about their experience.
The Luxury Resort Staff Reportedly Pressured the Family to Sign the NDA
Field’s husband and son fell ill again three days later, prompting her to leave the resort over “fears for my family’s safety.” However, hotel staff allegedly pressured her to sign an NDA before they could go to the hospital.
Field claims staff blocked her attempts to leave the resort, refusing to help with her bags or book a taxi while pressuring her to sign an NDA.
“My son was vomiting and vomiting and shaking and they wouldn’t let us leave, and [staff] just kept trying to get me to sign the NDA,'” Field told CBC.
“So yeah,it was flagrantly clear that they really didn’t care about us or our health,” she added.
She claimed her family became violently ill after eating undercooked fish, experiencing severe vomiting. While they initially recovered, her husband and four-year-old son fell sick again on the fifth day of their vacation.
The second wave of sickness left Field’s family feeling unsafe eating or sleeping at the resort, noting that many others had similar symptoms. A hotel doctor advised them to go to the hospital immediately, but hotel staff allegedly tried to stop them from leaving.
“The manager didn’t want us to leave because they wanted us to sign an NDA, so we wouldn’t post on social media about it or talk to anyone,” she recalled of the harrowing ordeal.
The Luxury Resort Allegedly Offered Cash for a Family to Sign the NDA
Field said the resort first offered her $500 to sign an NDA and later increased the amount over time. However, she declined the offer.
“They were stopping us from receiving care, they were putting my family’s lives in danger, really,” Field said of the ordeal. “I felt held hostage.”
Field claimed that hospital tests confirmed her family had fallen ill due to foodborne bacteria, which doctors suspected to be E. coli. Her son required hospitalization for 16 hours to treat severe dehydration. Although the family had travel insurance to cover the costs, they initially had to pay for medical care out of pocket.
Field and Schigol allege that while they declined to sign the NDA, they learned that other resort guests had agreed to the document.
Royalton Splash Riviera Cancun, owned by Blue Diamond Resorts, operates under Marriott’s “Autograph Collection” branding and rewards program.
Blue Diamond Resorts issued a statement to CBC, confirming that it has launched an investigation into the allegations.