Bethany Clarke, whose childhood friend Simone White was among the six who died from methanol poisoning in Laos, has spoken publicly for the first time
A survivor of methanol poisoning at a Laos hostel that killed six tourists has spoken for the first time about the incident that claimed her friend’s life and said she felt almost “paralysed” by the drinks.
Bethany Clarke said that she had been on a working holiday in Brisbane when her childhood friend Simone White convinced her to come on holiday to Laos.
The two were among a number of people offered free drinks at their backpackers’ hostel and were each given five or six shots of alcohol.
“If it looked dodgy, I wouldn’t have drunk it,” Clarke told the 60 Minutes programme in Australia. “We went up to the bar and I watched him pour them out from a glass bottle with a vodka label on it. I knew it would have been a local spirit, I wouldn’t expect it to be an international spirit.”
Clarke was speaking alongside Sue White, Simone’s mother, who said: “You don’t question it, do you really? If you’re on holiday, if it’s just come out of a bottle with a label on it. You just assume that’s what’s in the bottle.”
“You could either have vodka shots or whisky shots, but we didn’t have them as shots, we had them as mixers,” she said.
Clarke was asked if she was aware of the risk of methanol poisoning and said: “No, not really. I just knew that you could get bad alcohol that could make you get a bad hangover.”
Both Clarke and Simone were taken to hospital, and Simone was placed into a medically induced coma as her condition deteriorated. Clarke had to call White at 2am UK time to inform her.
“It was dreadful, it was probably the worst experience of my life, absolutely horrific,” White said. “’Bethany was on the other end of the line with the doc, with the surgeon, and she just said: ‘You need to give your consent for brain surgery or basically Simone’s not going to make it.’”
She made the journey out to her daughter’s bedside but was told days later that they would have to turn off her daughter’s life support.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/laos-poisoning-victim-methanol-shots-mlhg5pmgb