A Pennsylvania woman died while on vacation in the Dominican Republic, and her family is desperately seeking help to bring her body home.
Carolyn Russel was meant to spend the first week of May in Punta Cana with her family before heading back home to Pittsburgh, but just a few days into the trip, she suddenly fell seriously ill and had to go to a local hospital.
Her sisters told WPXI that they believe Russel had a diabetic emergency, and she suffered a cardiac arrest once she was in the hospital. She died in the hospital on Tuesday morning after she went into cardiac arrest a second time.
While she was still alive, two of her family members, Patricia Powell and Norma Bryant, decided to stay with her in the Dominican Republic while the rest of the family returned home.
They remained at her side for nearly two weeks as she lay in a hospital bed hooked up to a ventilator.
During that time, they tried to figure out how to get her back into the US, where she could receive the medical care she needed.
Powell and Bryant told WPXI that the Dominican doctors did not speak English, which made communicating a challenge, and that the hospital staff did what they could but lacked all the equipment Russel needed.
Powell added that 'no one can seem to be able to help us,' and when they visited the US embassy in Punta Cana, 'All they did was give us phone numbers to call the medevac to see how much they cost.'
Carolyn Russel died while on a family vacation in the Dominican Republic after going into cardiac arrest twice in a local hospital. She is pictured hooked up to a ventilator in the hospital
Russel's sisters said they believe she suffered a diabetic emergency and that the hospital was ill-equipped to treat her. Russel is pictured with a family member
After making a few calls, they discovered that it would cost about $55,000 to bring Russel home because she did not have medical insurance.
'That would include the ambulance, the doctor, the ventilator she’s on, the air ride,' one of Russel's sisters, Deborah Marshall, told WPXI.
The family set up a GoFundMe in an attempt to raise the tens of thousands of dollars they needed.
Following Russel's death, the fundraiser was repurposed to raise money to bring her body home. 'We are currently still in need of financial help,' the family wrote on the GoFundMe page after announcing the death.
Powell told WPXI that her sister showed signs of being sick early in the trip when they 'went on an excursion to see some monkeys and then on the way back, she threw up.'
She and Bryant had been planning to return to Pittsburgh on Wednesday without Russel, as they felt they had done everything they could to bring her back to the US, and she was not showing signs that she would get better soon.
Two of Russel's family members, Patricia Powell (right) and Norma Bryant (left), stayed behind to try to get Russel back to the US, but they discovered it would cost $55,000
Russel (right) is pictured with two family members on vacation before she fell ill. The family is now seeking money to bring her body home
It is unclear whether they went back as planned after Russel died or if they will stay longer to help bring her body home.
The GoFundMe has raised $6,273 of its $22,000 goal in six days as of Wednesday evening.