I survived Laos alcohol poisoning that killed my pal Simone White & 5 others – I felt paralysed after drinking six shots
A WOMAN who survived the vodka poisoning in Laos that killed six people was left feeling paralysed after drinking the same shots.
Bethany Clarke was close pals with Simone White, 28, and met the lawyer in Southeast Asia to explore the country.
But it all went horribly wrong, with Bethany telling 60 Minutes Australia they both unknowingly drank the methanol-laced shots that would kill Simone.
The pair were served the free drinks with pals at the Nana Backpackers Hostel in traveller hotspot Vang Vieng.
They each drank six shots, with Bethany saying she watched the bartender pour the toxic drinks and had no clue anything was wrong.
She said the pair woke up feeling incredibly lethargic and only slightly ill.
Bethany said she felt “not that bad, I didn’t think anything bad was going to happen”.
But now she thinks that lethargic feeling was part of the methanol poisoning.
She said: “You just physically can’t move, you’re more or less paralysed.
“You can still walk but everything is much, much, much more difficult than it would be ordinarily.”
Their symptoms became worse and Bethany started feeling nauseous, incredibly fatigued, and she even feinted.
The pair were taken to hospital by other travellers, where Simone began to have seizures and could no longer breath on her own.
Simone would need brain surgery, a doctor decided, and so Bethany called her friend’s mother Sue at 2am UK time with the news.
Sue said: “It was dreadful it was probably the worst experience of my life, absolutely horrific.”
The fearing mother then flew out to Laos to be by her bedside and hope that her daughter would make a recovery.
But, she expected the worst.
Sue told The Sunday Times: “Call it a mother’s intuition, but I knew that she was going to die when I had that phone call.”
Simone was alive for three days on life support in the Laos hospital.
Sue said: “She [Simone] had such beautiful long blonde hair, which had all been shaved off for the operation.”
Doctors refused to switch the life support off due to their religion – but told Sue she could do it herself.
The distraught mum had to take a tube out of her dying daughter’s mouth and take the incredibly painful and “traumatic” action to switch off the machine.
Simone’s inquest heard the tourist died of methanol toxicity and an intracranial haemorrhage.
Bethany has made a full recovery, despite drinking the same number of shots as Simone.
She said it has been difficult coming to terms that she survived while Simone died.
Bethany said: “I think we’ve just had to try and get through the funeral and obviously we want to try and spread awareness and make sure other people don’t have to go through this.
“And then I can sort of start on my own journey of trying to come to terms with it all.”
Why is methanol so deadly?
METHANOL is a super-toxic version of alcohol that may be present in drinks if added by crooks to make them stronger or if they are brewed or distilled badly, writes The Sun's health correspondent Sam Blanchard.
The consequences can be devastating because as little as a single shot of contaminated booze could be deadly, with just 4ml of methanol potentially enough to cause blindness.
Prof Oliver Jones, a chemist at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, said: “The body converts methanol to formic acid.
“Formic acid blocks the action of an enzyme that is critical to how the body uses oxygen to generate energy.
“If it stops working, cells cannot take up or use oxygen from the blood and lack of oxygen causes problems in a range of organs as the cells start to die.
“Symptoms of methanol poisoning include vomiting, seizures and dizziness.
“The optic nerve seems to be particularly vulnerable to methanol toxicity, so there is the potential for temporary or permanent blindness, and even death.
“While thankfully rare, methanol poisoning is very serious, and treatment should be given at a hospital.”
An unexpected but key way of treating methanol poisoning is to get the patient drunk with normal alcohol – known as ethanol – to distract the liver and stop it processing the methanol.
Eight employees at Nana Backpackers Hostel were arrested over the poisoning, but all were released from custody.
No charges have been laid for the six deaths and the hostel has been closed.
One pal claimed staff refused to call an ambulance and a female worker massaged the toes and feet of one of the Danish women while she was having a seizure.
Danish friends Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald, 21, died after they were left vomiting blood for 13 hours.
Australian friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, also died in the tragedy.
The alarm was raised by staff over their condition after the teens failed to check out on the morning of November 13.