'My hands are numb': Final text from couple who died mysteriously in Fiji
Authorities are trying to determine what killed a holidaying couple in Fiji as it’s revealed they sent a final text message to family before dying.
David Paul, 38, and his wife Michelle, 35, from Texas, were staying at a Sheraton resort in Fiji last month when they both became violently ill.
Both were hospitalised.
Ms Paul’s father Marc Canalog said he received a text message from his daughter on May 24 to say they were in bad shape.
"She told me that they're sick, and they are vomiting and they have diarrhoea... she told me that her hands are numb,” Mr Canalog said.
He said the couple looked healthy when they dropped off their two-year-old son Ayden before the trip.
Ms Paul died in hospital on May 25 before her husband died two days later.
Mr Paul’s sister Rebecca Ward told Good Morning America she’s “stuck in a nightmare”.
Ms Ward told the program the couple went to a clinic after feeling unwell but were released.
However, her sister-in-law woke up “clammy and sweating” while her brother was “too weak” to take his wife to hospital, Ms Ward said.
She added Ms Paul died not long afterwards in hospital. Her brother returned to the hotel, went back to hospital, then back to the hotel but told his mother over Facebook he was “OK”.
"We were hoping to see him in the next few days. Then the next thing we hear he was back in the hospital with shortness of breath and that was the last time we actually talked to him," she told Good Morning America.
Fijian officials say they're monitoring a dangerous flu season.
However, on Friday, Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Medical Services ruled out flu as a cause of the couple’s death.
The ministry added staff and health workers who were in contact with the couple are being monitored as a precaution, but that all are currently well.
Mr Canalog fears they are withholding information to protect the country's tourist industry.
The couple's bodies will remain in Fiji until the cause of death is confirmed.
The CDC and World Health Organisation are assisting in the investigation.
With Reuters and The Associated Press
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.
