Mom of UK lawyer opens up about daughter’s nightmarish final moments after mass poisoning in Laos

The mother of a British lawyer, who died from a suspected mass methanol poisoning in the Southeast Asian country of Laos, has spoken publicly for the first time about the horrendous experience of flying 16 hours to be by her daughter’s bedside.

Simone White, 28, was one of six foreigners who died after staying at Nana Backpackers Hostel in the tourist town of Vang Vieng in November. The hostel is now closed and last week, eight employees were detained.

Melbourne friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, were among those who died.

Simone was with two childhood friends – one who lives in Australia – who fell ill after a night out. Her friends survived.

They reportedly drank six vodka shots from the hostel, mixed with Sprite from a local supermarket, the night of the poisoning.

A bottle of local-branded Tiger vodka that was used for “free shots” at Nana Backpackers Hostel is one theory to how the group of backpackers fell ill, but hostel staff deny adding to the bottle.

Laos authorities have since prohibited the sale and consumption of Tiger vodka and Tiger whisky over concerns they could be a “health risk”.

Simone’s mother, Sue White, told The Sunday Times that the three women had woken up the next morning to check out of the hostel and had headaches. They then felt worse as the day went on and ended up going to hospital.

Sue first heard about what was going on in a message from one of Simone’s friends, who said doctors thought they had acidosis – a condition where there is too much acid in the body fluids.

At that point, she was told her daughter was the worst affected out of the trio but she wasn’t doing “too badly”. The friends were put on IV drips but Sue said the poisoning had already started affecting Simone’s brain.

“She was getting quite distressed, refusing treatment and pulling out the cannula. She went into respiratory failure,” she told The Sunday Times.

Then a phone call came from Simone’s friend, telling Sue she should fly to Laos.

“I knew when I had that phone call — I don’t know what it was, call it a mother’s intuition — but I knew that she was going to die,” she said.

Sue arrived at the Laos hospital to see Simone being wheeled into brain surgery. She recalled noticing her daughter’s “beautiful long blonde hair” had been shaved off. She described the “horrendous” moment as the worst experience of her life.

The British newspaper reported that tragically Simone’s brain function was gone and her mother switched off her ventilator on November 21, nine days after drinking the vodka at the hostel.

“Food poisoning” was reportedly written on the 28-year-old’s medical documents, suggesting the symptoms of methanol poisoning were not recognised. However, Sue praised the hospital staff for doing their best.

Sue, who is a travel agent, is speaking publicly about her daughter’s death to raise awareness.

Her message to other travellers, shared with the newspaper, was to: “Please be careful when it comes to drinks. Simone was a university-educated, highly intelligent person. If it can happen to her, it can happen to anybody.”

The families of Australian victims Ms Jones and Ms Bowles have created a fundraiser to help launch a campaign raising awareness about methanol poisoning.

They have promised to “create meaningful change and keep Bianca and Holly’s memories alive”.

The GoFundMe page explained funds raised would help assist the families financially, such as covering out-of-pocket expenses to bring the young women home, as well as support existing initiatives working to combat methanol poisoning through education and prevention efforts, and launch their own initiatives.

More than $380,000 has been raised.

Methanol is highly toxic and as little as one shot can be fatal. It is difficult to distinguish from ethanol, the alcohol found in beer, wine, and spirits, because it is colourless, odourless, and tasteless.

Dr Blair Aitken from Swinburne’s Centre for Mental Health and Brain Science explained that in some cases, dangerously high methanol levels were created during illegal alcohol production or home distillation “due to poor control during the distillation process”.

But in other cases, “methanol is intentionally added to counterfeit alcohol because it is easier to produce and a cheap way to increase alcohol content”.

Symptoms of methanol poisoning include fatigue, headaches, nausea, and vision problems such as blindness, blurred or snowfield vision, changes in colour perception, difficulty looking at bright lights, dilated pupils, flashes of light and tunnel vision.