The mother of a young Oklahoma teacher who died two years after drinking a laced margarita wants the restaurant that served the tainted drink “run out of town.”
Kelly Hunter, 54, said the owners of Hacienda Las Margaritas Bar & Grill dodged and ignored her late daughter — 30-year-old Holly Hill — after giving her a margarita contaminated with industrial strength cleaning chemicals.
She took only one sip, but it left her with debilitating internal injuries that plagued her for the rest of her life — along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills.
“At the very least they need to make sure that nothing like this happens to anyone else, and that’s definitely at the top of our list,” Hunter told The Post.
Her daughter died Thursday following complications from her horrible injuries.
“But more than that, I’d like to see them run out of town. I don’t feel like they deserve to be here,” she added.
Holly — a third grade teacher and mother of three — was enjoying a Valentine’s Day dinner at the Elgin restaurant in 2023 when she took a sip of a margarita, and immediately felt her mouth and throat being scorched.
Exactly how the dangerous cleaning chemicals got into the drink remains unclear, but Elgin police said the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the case.
Holly started vomiting and sprinted to the restaurant bathroom to wash the fiery poison out within moments of taking the fateful sip, then rushed to an emergency room for treatment.
“It was that bad that it was just immediate,” her mother said, explaining that Holly’s life was instantly and “drastically” changed.
“She went from being a vivacious healthy person to having complicated daily medical issues we had to deal with,” Hunter said. “She went from being a normal, young mother to having to carry a med bag and puke bags wherever we went.”
Part of Holly’s esophagus had been burned away and left with a gaping hole, and she underwent more than 30 procedures to treat it.
“She had been teaching when this happened and never missed a sick day,” the mother added. “We went from that to having to miss a day of work at least every three weeks to go have a procedure done so she can eat and drink.”
Those treatments didn’t come cheap. Hunter said her daughter was going to the hospital about once every three weeks, and wracking up bills of about $80,000 each visit.
And while the family reached a settlement after suing the restaurant, Hunter said “it wasn’t enough” to keep up with the towering bills — but that the restaurant simply passed the buck on to their insurers.
“We were told that there’s not any money to be had other than this insurance policy. We can take it or leave it,” the mother said.
“They did nothing. They avoided us. They never reached out to my daughter. They did nothing,” Hunter said. “Never did they reach out to cover lost wages, gas money or toll money. Never did they make any effort at all to take care of that.”
“It’s cost us way more than it will ever cost them,” she added. “I have a 6-year-old grandson that is now growing up with no momma. My son in law is absolutely heartbroken. I had to watch my daughter die in front of me.”
Hacienda Las Margaritas issued a statement on Facebook Tuesday saying “everyone” was “deeply saddened” by Holly’s death and would be closing for two days out of respect.
“The individuals involved in that 2023 incident were terminated and have not been employed by or associated with Las Margaritas,” the restaurant said, adding it “took several steps to help prevent any recurrence” and that its customers were safe.
Hill, however, called that statement “full of s–t.”
“They can’t take it back, but they need to at least be held accountable,” she said.
A representative for the restaurant couldn’t be reached for comment by The Post.
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