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'I Couldn't Breathe': Taunton Man Gets Health Scare In Dominican Republic

TAUNTON (CBS) – Three vacationers have mysteriously died at sister resorts in the Dominican Republic. A Taunton man says he became sick right after staying at one of those resorts. He says he didn't feel right after the first night.

Artie Vieira went to the Emergency Room at Morton Hospital Friday. The blood tests came back negative, but for days, he was on edge.

"Yea a little on edge, a little nervous, just hoping that everything is OK," said Vieira.

Artie Vieira
Artie Vieira (WBZ-TV)

Artie and his fiancée were at the Grand Bahia La Romana resort in the Dominican last week. They loved it there, but on their last day, Artie got sick.

"I woke up with lots of phlegm, lots of coughing up, to the point where I couldn't breathe," Vieira said.

A Maryland couple died at the same resort last week, from some sort of respiratory disease. And at a sister resort, a Pennsylvania woman died. So Artie Vieira decided to go to the hospital.

"I've been watching the news and watching social media and everything and seeing all these stories come up about people dying and people getting sick, so everyone around me my family and my friends were like go get checked out, go get checked out, so that's exactly what I did," Vieira said.

He is now confident he just got some sort of bug in the Dominican Republic. Every year about two million Americans visit the island with few problems. The three who died pose quite a medical mystery right now.

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