Laos methanol poisoning: Bali tourist’s warning after recalling waking up blind in NZ

A woman has spoken out about the dangers of methanol poisoning after recalling a nightmare holiday in Bali that left her waking up blind in New Zealand, claiming she is only alive today because of the care she received here.

In 2011, Mexican-Canadian playwright Ashley King was living in Byron Bay, Australia, when she decided to spend 35 days holidaying in Bali.

Speaking to the Australian current affairs TV programme The Project, the 32-year-old detailed the “terrifying” ordeal after she went out on her last night to a bar in Kuta, south Bali, and ordered a mixed vodka drink.

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King, who now resides in Calgary, Canada, shared her story more than a decade after the incident took place in light of six tourists recently dying in the party town of Vang Vieng in Laos after unknowingly drinking alcoholic drinks containing methanol.

She said it was “no different to any other night I had gone out”. However, things rapidly took a turn over the next two days while travelling to New Zealand as she felt progressively unwell.

The first major sign of something being wrong was when she woke up the next day in her accommodation and noticed it was “really dim lighting”.

“About 10 minutes later I was unable to breathe and gasping for air,” King explained on air.

She ended up being hospitalised and “in the dark, blind”.

“I couldn’t breathe ... they realised there was a large amount of methanol in my system”.

Now with only 2% of her eyesight, King said the ordeal was the “most traumatic” thing she has been through.

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King credits her survival to the care she received in NZ, saying “The only reason I’m alive today is because I was poisoned on my last night and took a couple of days for the poison to start taking effect in my body and I happened to have made it to a first-world country and was able to be hospitalised in New Zealand”.

Last month, two Australian teens, a British lawyer, two Danish women and an American man died after suspected methanol poisoning in Laos.

Eight staff members from Nana Backpackers Hostel as well as three foreign nationals have been arrested, ABC reported.

No charges have been made.

Methanol is sometimes added deliberately and illegally to alcohol to cheaply boost the alcohol content of a drink.

It can also be inadvertently generated during brewing.