Canadian man sues over deadly AZ sweat-lodge event

Associated Press/November 10, 2009

Phoenix - A Canadian man is the third person to file a lawsuit in connection with last month's sweat lodge ceremony in northern Arizona that left three people dead and 18 others hospitalized.

Dennis Mehravar has joined a civil suit against self-help guru James Arthur Ray over the Oct. 8 event near Sedona.

Mehravar runs a real-estate business in Kitchener, Ontario. He says he passed out in the sweat lodge, was hospitalized and still has pain and dizziness.

Arizona cattle rancher Sidney Spencer says he was hospitalized for days with kidney and liver failure and respiratory problems following the sweat-lodge ceremony. Spencer's suit is pending in Coconino County Superior Court.

A separate civil case has been filed in the court by the family of Liz Neuman, a Minnesota woman who died.

The suits claim Ray didn't adequately monitor the people in the makeshift enclosure, misrepresented the dangers of the sweat-lodge ceremony and the 36-hour fast that preceded it, and didn't provide proper medical care.

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