A Texas woman who was critically injured when a hot tub fatally electrocuted her husband is suing the travel companies attached to the Mexico resort where it happened.
The wrongful-death lawsuit, obtained by People, details Lizette Zambrano’s desperate attempt to yank her husband, Jorge Guillen, from the water as he collapsed and got sucked to the bottom of the tub at Sonoran Sea Resort in Puerto Peñasco, an hour south of the U.S. border. It was about 8:30 p.m. local time last Tuesday as the couple prepared to watch the sunset after arriving at the high-rise-condo complex for a family vacation.
Zambrano “sprang forward from the pool deck to try and grab Jorge’s body from the jacuzzi,” alleges the complaint filed in El Paso County, according to People. “However, upon touching Jorge and the water, Lizette was electrically shocked.”
Other guests pulled 35-year-old Zambrano out of the water, but every attempt to grab Guillen, 43, shocked them, too, the lawsuit states.
“Patrons attempted to assist, grabbing a shepherd’s cross and other items,” the lawsuit said. “However, the metal from the objects carried the electrical current and began shocking the rescuers.”
Moreover, the suit alleges, it took 10 minutes for hotel staff to answer the guests’ cries for help as every attempt to pluck Guillen from the bottom of the tub shocked him anew.
“It’s absolutely terrifying,” said Tej Paranjpe, an attorney at PMR law in Houston. “There was not a single staff member that did anything while Jorge was getting continuously shocked again and again underwater.”
Zambrano is seeking $1 million in damages from Casago International, a vacation-rental provider, and the travel company High Desert Travel, both based in Arizona. Neither company was responding to requests for comment on Monday. The General Prosecutor’s Office of Justice of the State of Sonora is investigating the incident.
“There is no reason this should have happened,” Paranjpe said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “Hotels and resorts have a duty to ensure guest safety. At no point did resort staff think to engage an emergency shut-off, not to mention warn guests of a faulty, dangerous amenity.”
With News Wire Services
