Survivor spoke out about incident that killed two women in country their parents say should be ‘taken off bucket list’
A British tourist who survived drinking alcohol laced with methanol while travelling in Laos previously spoke out about her ordeal.
Last November, Bethany Clarke had been travelling through the Southeast Asian country with her childhood friend Simone White when the pair found themselves caught up in a devastating methanol poisoning scandal at Nana Backpackers hostel in Vang Vieng.
While Clarke would ultimately survive the ordeal, White and five other tourists - including Australian, Danish and American travellers - would sadly lose their lives.
28-year-old Clarke has now spoken about her experience in a new interview and is calling on the government to educate people about methanol poisoning.
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"We just should have known that drinking spirits abroad was not the done thing, but we’ve done it for years," she said in an interview with Daily Express earlier this year.
Clarke revealed that she and White had spent a day tubing before going back to the hostel in central Laos for drinks, which included free shots provided by the accommodation. After waking up the next day, the two friends realised something was wrong.
"We all woke up and just felt off — uncoordinated, not able to think clearly," she recalled, comparing the sensation to 'dementia'.
The childhood friends attempted to carry on with their holiday and went on a kayaking excursion, but were unable to sit up.
"We were both having to just lie down on the kayaks because we weren’t strong enough to sit upright and paddle,” she explained.
"We were just looking up at the sky and waiting for it to finish. Simone was being sick off her kayak at times, which I thought was a bit odd."
Clarke and White were then taken to a nearby hospital and misdiagnosed with food poisoning.
Unaware they were fighting methanol poisoning, the two women deteriorated as time went on, with Clarke remembering how White was 'gasping' for air after 24 hours.
The two women were then transferred to a private hospital upon Clarke's request, and finally diagnosed with methanol poisoning.
White, who lived in London and worked as a lawyer, later passed away. She became one of six victims alongside Australian friends Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jones, both 19, Danish tourists Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21, and 57-year-old American traveller James Louis Hutson.
Brisbane-based Clarke urged the UK government to do more in educating travellers about the importance of identifying methanol poisoning, urging for the subject to be added to national school curriculums.
It can take 24 hours for symptoms of methanol poisoning to show up in the body, with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, dizziness, changes to vision and abdominal pain.
Her comments echo pleas made by the parents of teenagers Morton-Bowles and Jones, who are warning people against visiting Laos.
"I feel very lucky to have survived it but less lucky that I’ve lost my best friend when it was just so preventable," Clarke added.
Brenna Cooper