Laos methanol victim ‘went from confused to comatose in 30 minutes’

A Laos doctor has described frantic efforts to save Holly Bowles, one of the young backpackers killed by poisoned alcohol.

Australian Bianca Jones, centre, was one of six tourists who died after drinking contaminated spirits. Holly Bowles, left, and Simone White, right, also died.

A doctor has described his efforts to save the life of one of the backpackers killed by poisoned alcohol in Laos.

Dr Yaher, of the hospital in the tourist town of Vang Vieng, was first to treat Holly Bowles, 19, an Australian, one of six tourists who died after drinking vodka contaminated with methanol.

Bowles died in a hospital in Thailand on Friday, nine days after being taken to Yaher’s emergency room, 500 yards from the Nana Backpacker Hostel. She and her friend Bianca Jones collapsed there after drinking free shots of spirits two nights earlier.

The doctor said that Bowles went from a state of reeling confusion to a coma in half an hour after arriving at the hospital at 2am. “She was confused and she was sleepy,” the doctor said at the small hospital. “We asked her what she had eaten or drunk, but she didn’t know what had happened.”

Yaher thought she might have taken too many of the cannabis sweets popular with backpackers on the “banana pancake trail” through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. “We treated her symptomatically,” he said. “We put her on an IV drip and gave her vitamins. But after 30 minutes she had a seizure and went into a coma. I was so surprised. We gave her CPR, because she had difficulty breathing, and we intubated her and referred her to [the hospital in the capital] Vientiane.”

Bowles was taken by ambulance first to Kasemrad International Hospital, then to Setthathirath Hospital in Vientiane and then to Thailand. She died there on Friday, the day after Jones, 19, and after four others who had been staying at the same hostel.

Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, died from methanol poisoning while backpacking around South East Asia. Picitre: Facebook

Among them was Simone White, 28, from Orpington, southeast London. Two others were Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21, and Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, both from Denmark.

An account in Laos state media, based on briefings from the authorities, said that they had been found by staff at the hostel lying unconscious on the floor of their bathroom. A 57-year-old American, James Hutson, was found dead in his room, with empty bottles of beer and vodka by his bed.

The government of Laos said on Saturday that it was “conducting investigations to find causes of the incident and to bring the perpetrators to justice in accordance with the law”.

The hostel is closed and its owners, manager and barman are being questioned. Other tourists have reported falling ill after staying but the police have not yet confirmed that the poisoning happened there rather than at another bar or restaurant. “We see lots of tourists in this hospital,” Dr Yaher said.

“Usually it’s accidents, like falling off a motorbike, and sometimes people who have drunk too much. Not usually drugs, although sometimes local people take ketamine or methamphetamine. But in 30 years this is the first time I have seen methanol poisoning.”

Bianca Jones’s father, Mark, said: “I would like to ... urge the Laos government to investigate this to the fullest extent, to make sure this incident doesn’t happen again. We can’t have the passing of our daughter’s life not lead to change to protect others. We’ll forever miss our beautiful girl.”

The Times