Man killed in resort hot tub after being continuously electrocuted for 10 minutes: Lawsuit

Lizzette Zambrano and Jorge Guillen (GoFundMe) and the Sonoran Sea Resort (YouTube/TheTastyTraveler)

A woman in Texas has filed a lawsuit against the owners and operators of a resort in Mexico, claiming her husband was fatally electrocuted due to faulty wiring in one of their hot tubs.

Lizzette Zambrano — who was also critically injured in the hot tub incident — filed the complaint in El Paso County, Texas, on Friday. She is seeking more than $1 million in the wrongful death of 43-year-old Jorge Guillen.

The incident took place while Zambrano and Guillen were vacationing at the Sonoran Sea Resort in Puerto Penasco, which is about 60 miles south of the Mexico-Arizona border on the Sea of Cortez.

According to the complaint, as the sun was setting on Tuesday, June 11. Guillen put his foot into a hot tub on the resort premise and was immediately “exposed to an electrical current under the water.” The shock f forced him to “keel over” and he was quickly taken beneath the surface of the water.

Zambrano watched her husband collapse and ran over to try and get him out of the hot tub. However, the moment she touched the water, she too was exposed to the electrical current and fell into the hot tub, the complaint alleges.

The suit states that even after the couple were both submerged in the water, the electrical current continued, hindering the ability of bystanders to provide assistance.

“Patrons began to encircle the chaos, attempting to save both Lizzette (Zambrano) and her husband,” the suit states. “Lizzette (Zambrano) was able to be grabbed by another guest and was brought out of the water. Patrons attempted to assist, grabbing a shepherd’s cross and other items to attempt to get Jorge (Guillen’s) body from the hot tub. However, the metal from the objects carried the electrical current and began shocking the rescuers.”

Resort staffers waited approximately 10 minutes before they “finally availed themselves and began to assist in rescuing” Guillen from the hot tub, the suit states.

“At no time prior to this, did Defendants seek to engage the emergency shutoff for the jacuzzi or attempt any rescue of either Jorge or Lizzette. Jorge was being electrocuted and drowned under water for 10 minutes ,” the document states (emphasis in original).

Guillen was pronounced dead on the scene. Zambrano was transported via helicopter to a hospital in Phoenix in critical condition. She is expected to be released from the hospital as early as Friday, according to a report from El Paso NBC affiliate KTSM.

The complaint alleges that the cause of the fatal incident was that “electrical wiring in the jacuzzi on the premises was faulty and had not been treated or dealt with by any defendant employees.”

“There is no reason this should have happened,” Zambrano’s attorney, Tej Paranjpe, said in a statement about the case. “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.”

Zambrano is also being represented in the matter by attorneys Michael Rodriguez and Charles Bush.

State prosecutors in Sonora, Mexico said that investigators were looking into the cause of the “electrical discharge.”

A GoFundMe to help raise money for Zambrano’s medical bills can be found here .

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