During our stay at Riu Bambu Hotel in Punta Cana, we got food poisoning from one of the hotel's restaurants, Mamajuana.
On Wednesday, September 17th, my wife, our one-year-old daughter, and I had lunch at the Mamajuana Restaurant, located by the TUI exclusive guests swimming pool. We ate seafood, including white fish and prawns.
By around 2:30 PM, my wife began experiencing stomach pain and returned to the room with our baby to rest, while I stayed by the pool. An hour later, she called me, complaining of severe stomach pain, so I headed to the room to take care of the baby.
As soon as I arrived, I also experienced stomach pain, and soon we were both vomiting repeatedly.
My wife went back to bed, crying in pain and fearing for her life. I became very concerned and called the front desk to ask for a doctor. They instructed me to call the doctor's 24-hour line directly. Unfortunately, the doctor refused to come, stating I needed to visit the clinic first for insurance verification.
I explained that my wife's symptoms were worsening, and she could barely stand, while our daughter was now feverish and crying. Despite this, the doctor still did not come.
Eventually, my wife began to vomit again, this time a green watery liquid, which made me very worried. She did this a few more times and then fainted for a few seconds, frightening me greatly. It was around 7:30 PM, and it was getting dark, adding to my distress.
I repeatedly called the reception five or six times, but no one answered. I reached out to the doctor line, imploring for assistance, but received a refusal. My wife began to scream from the floor, expressing that she had lost feeling in her arms from her fingers to her elbows. At that moment, I placed our crying baby in the stroller, gathered our documents into a bag, and with one arm maneuvered the stroller while I carried her on my shoulder towards the reception.
It was around 8 p.m., it was dark, and I had approximately 200 meters to cover to reach reception (we were in room 1704). Halfway there, my wife started to scream once more. I set her down, and several Spanish-speaking tourists came to assist us. One lady attempted to calm my baby while I splashed water on my wife's face to keep her conscious. I asked one of the tourists to quickly head to the reception and request an ambulance.
It was an absolute nightmare—this could be confirmed by checking the surveillance cameras, which cover all angles. After a few minutes, a baggage porter arrived with a wheelchair, and the doctor showed up too, despite my insistence on needing an ambulance.
My wife was in a state of lethargy, her eyes were rolling back, opening and closing simultaneously as we placed her in the wheelchair. The doctor, who seemed more like an assistant in a blue uniform, did not administer any treatment immediately or even examine her. Instead, he presented a paper and requested my signature for payment, claiming he would not attend to my wife without it. I was appalled at how medical personnel could fail to prioritize care for my wife in such a dire situation. He then shouted at the other tourists to step aside, requiring me to acknowledge the impending charges. I expressed firmly, "Please, look at my wife; she needs an ambulance right away."
After I signed these paper, we brought her to the reception, were we were picked up by a black car to be brough to the hotel clinic which was just 200m away. I was than asked to pay £5 to this 30 seconds pick-up/drop-off. The assistant put my wife on a table, and she was seen by the doctor (brown uniform). The doctor started to call immediately the ambulance and he told me the ambulance will come in 15 minutes which makes me very upset as this could have been called at least 30 minutes earlier. The ambulance arrived and took my wife to the Veron Hospital where she had several infusions and check-up analyses. The results were that she had abundant of bacteria (Blastocystis hominis) found in the seafood she ate. She was stabilised and was released from the hospital at 2am in the morning Thursday 18th September.
When she came back, she called me from the reception to go to pay $60 for the driver who picked her up, which was a guy dressed in soldier uniform and was writing ARMADA on his jacket. I asked the hotel receptionist to tell exactly in English how much is this, and he confirmed is $60.
After I went to the room with my baby after my wife went to the hospital, I started the chat with TUI app, and I have been told to see the rep next day after 11:00 (Jeroen). Since Wednesday afternoon until we left on Friday we stayed only inside the room, we all three had diarrhoea and had no appetite at all. We just drank plenty of water. We asked the reception for some special food, which initially they refused and asked us to go to the restaurant, and after my insistence they brough in the end just some bread and processed food and we threw it in the bin (the exact opposite food we need to).
We had the worst holiday ever and we asked to live earlier on Thursday 18th September back in the UK, but apparently there were no UK flights.
P.S.: The huge bug in the bathroom on my last day before checkout I simply put it in toilet paper and threw it outside as my wife hates them. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. NEVER EVER RETURNING TO THIS HOTEL. If you still want to go, just pay attention at the food you eat, especially the seafood and big bugs in the bathrooms. The hotel management is all corrupted and TUI did not involved as they should.
Date of stay: 12/9/25 - 1/9/25, room 1704 (family with a 14 months old child)
