A survivor of the deadly methanol poisoning at a Laos backpacker hotel says she lucky to be alive as she opened up about the harrowing ordeal which killed six international tourists, including two Aussies.
British backpacker Bethany Clarke was enjoying a working holiday in Brisbane when she agreed to catch up with her childhood friend, lawyer Simone White, 28, who was holidaying in Laos.
The young women were staying at the Nana Backpacker’s Hostel in Vang Vieng on November 12, where they were among dozens of tourists who enjoyed free whisky and vodka shots, unaware the drinks were tainted with methanol.
Both would be rushed to hospital the next morning and Ms White would die within days.
Melbourne best friends Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones, both 19, Danish friends Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Sorensen, 21, and American James Hutson, 57, also died in the same incident.
The two British friends had spent a ‘great’ day tubing down the river before returning to the hostel, where they were later captured on CCTV heading to the bar for happy hour.
Ms Clarke says the pair each drank six shots, adding there was little to suggest they were drinking tainted alcohol.
‘If it looked dodgy, I wouldn’t have drunk it. We went up to the bar and I watched him pour them out from a glass bottle with a vodka label on it,’ she told 60 Minutes.
British lawyer Simone White outside the Laos hostel days before she died from methanol poisoning
Simone (front) and her childhood friend Bethany Clarke spent November 12 tubing down a river. Both would fall ill with methanol poisoning within 24 hours
Her friend’s mum Sue White added: ‘You don’t question it, do you really, if you’re on holiday.
‘if it’s come out of a bottle with a label on it, you just assume that’s that’s what’s in the bottle.
The two young women began to feel unwell the next morning, including an unshaken lethargy.
‘You just physically can’t move. It’s like you are more or less paralysed,’ Ms Clarke recalled.
‘You can still walk, but everything is much, much, much more difficult than it would be ordinarily, but yeah, mainly fatigue, nausea, I fainted.’
The women were taken by fellow tourists to hospital, where Ms White was placed into a coma as her condition rapidly deteriorated.
Ms Clarke had to make the devastating phone call to her friend’s mum back in the UK to get her consent for doctors to perform brain surgery.
‘It was the the worst experience of my life,’ Ms White recalled.
After making the mercy dash from UK to be by Simone’s side, Ms White was told by the hospital several days later that she would have to turn off her daughter’s life support because the doctors’ religion prevented them from doing so.
‘I then had to take the tube out of her mouth. It was just absolutely terrible. It was just so traumatic,’ she says.
Ms Clarke has since made full recovery and returned home to the UK.
She suspected she survived because her drinks had a lower concentration of methanol than Simone’s.
‘Yeah, could’ve easily been me (who died),’ she said.
Survivor Bethany Clarke (right) spoke to 60 Minutes alongside her late friend’s mum Sue White
Meanwhile, the parents of the two Australian teenagers who died are furious at a lack of action over their daughters’ deaths, revealing that investigators refuse to even meet with them.
Best friends Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jones, both aged 19, died in November after drinking alcohol that was laced with methanol at the hostel.
Their fathers, Shaun Bowles and Mark Jones, are also long-time friends who had travelled a similar route together in south-east Asia 25 years earlier.
The Laotian government expressed ‘sincere sympathy and deepest condolences to the families of the deceased’ after the teenagers died, but Mr Bowles said there has been no direct contact with the grieving families.
‘For them not to reach out, that’s just not good enough,’ he told 60 Minutes/.
‘People have died and someone’s responsible. So we absolutely want to know how and who is responsible for it.’
The two friends and their wives Samantha Morton and Michelle Jones, have been desperately waiting for the results of an investigation promised by the Laotian government.
But the Melbourne families, along with the parents of other young people who died in the same alcohol poisoning tragedy, are distraught at the lack of contact from Laotian authorities.
Best friends Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jones (pictured), both aged 19, died after drinking alcohol they had no idea was laced with methanol at a resort in Vang Vieng
Michelle Jones, Samantha Morton and Mark Jones are pictured at Bianca’s funeral
Pictured L-R: Mark Jones, Samantha Morton, Shaun Bowles and Michelle Jones
‘I cannot have my daughter’s passing not mean anything,’ Mr Jones said.
‘Surely, the Laos government needs to make a strong stance against this to protect what is one of their biggest industries, to ensure that travellers from Australia, from anywhere, that are going to their country are protected from this.’
Though the Laotian government has not made direct contact with the families, it did send a letter to Foreign Minister Penny Wong saying it was holding a ‘thorough investigation’ into the incident ‘to bring the perpetrators to justice’.
It also passed on its condolences to Holly and Bianca’s parents through the AFP.
Bianca Jones’ father Mark said the families feared the investigation in Laos was not being taken seriously.
‘We’ve heard nothing. So I can’t be confident about anything. Yeah, confident would be a gross overstatement. Hoping,’ he said.
‘We want some form of closure. We want to understand that people who have done wrong by our daughter and Holly and the other people are going to be brought to justice.’
Best friends Holly and Bianca were dancing together just weeks before their deadly backpacking trip
Mr Jones is seen being assisted by his long-time friend Shaun Bowles to carry his daughter’s rose-adorned coffin during her funeral service on December 6
English woman Simone White (pictured) also died in the same methanol poisoning incident
Holly’s dad Shaun Bowles said he wants to see some action.
‘We’ll get to that one day. But the longer it goes on, the quicker my hope diminishes of something happening, that’s for sure.’
The families’ frustrations at the lack of direct contact is also being felt in other countries.
The families of the other four victims are also demanding answers.
‘There’s literally been no communication at all for us to know what’s happening over in Laos. It’s been just terrible,’ Ms White said.
