Fundraiser raises thousands for first responders in Mexico hotel death

An online fundraiser for two volunteer emergency medical responders who fell ill while trying to save a California couple at a luxury Mexican resort has raised tens of thousands of dollars for their medical care.

Siblings Fernando Valencia Sotelo and Grisel Valencia Sotelo tried to revive Abby Lutz, 28, and John Heathco, 41, who died Tuesday at the Rancho Pescadero hotel on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

The two emergency workers “were attending to Abby and John when they quickly became overcome,” according to the online campaign, which is a few hundred dollars over the $25,000 goal to pay for their medical expenses at a private clinic.

The Sotelos, whose mother Griselda is the chief of the volunteer Firefighters and Paramedics of Pescadero, where the hotel is located, were recently moved to a private clinic in San Jose del Cabo that has more advanced facilities than the public hospital where they were being treated since Tuesday, the online fundraiser explained.

According to the post, Grisel collapsed as soon as she left the hotel room where she was attending to the couple at the Hyatt-owned resort, where rooms go for more than $600 per night.

“Fernando was able to get himself and Grisel back to their ambulance and administer oxygen to himself and to her,” writes Hillary Chandler, who organized the fundraiser for the pair. “They were then rushed to the hospital by other team members.”

“As we grieve for the families of Abby and John,” continued Chandler, “we are overcome with emotion that our chief almost lost two of her own children on this terrible night.”

Lutz and Heathco at first thought they had food poisoning and sought treatment at a local hospital.

The couple died from “intoxication by a substance yet to be determined,” officials said after initial reports said that the couple’s cause of death was from inhalation of carbon monoxide.