When British lawyer Simone White lay brain dead in a hospital bed after a mass methanol poisoning in Laos, her mother Sue faced a heartbreaking choice.
The 28-year-old, from Orpington in London, had been drinking in the backpacking hotspot of Vang Vieng during a holiday to southeast Asia withtwo childhood friends.
‘I’m having the best time, it’s an absolutely fantastic holiday’, she said in the last text to her mother, Sue, in November.
Days later, Sue received the call saying Simone was in critical condition. ‘Call it a mother’s intuition’, she said, ‘but I knew she was going to die’.
All three friends were hospitalised after drinking alcohol tainted with methanol, a chemical found in bootleg liquor.
You can’t smell it or taste it, but it is so toxic a single shot can kill you. A teaspoon can leave you blind.
Simone’s friends survived, but brain emergency surgery proved fruitless in saving her life.
Her mother Sue told 60 Minutes Australia, in an episode aired on Sunday: ‘They just literally kept her on the ventilator, and it was only you know when I kind of said, “I just can’t do this any longer”.
‘And they kind of came back to about an hour later and said, “Oh, okay, well, if you want to, you can turn the ventilator off yourself”.’
Medical staff blamed religious reasons for their inability to do it themselves, leaving Sue with the choice of whether to end her daughter’s life, or continue watching her artificially kept alive with a machine.
Sue said: ‘She still had the tube in her mouth, I then had to take the tube out of her mouth. It was just absolutely terrible. It was just so traumatic.’
In a tribute released after her dead on November 21, Simone’s family said: ‘Simone was one of a kind and had the most wonderful energy and spark for life. She was a soul who gave so much to so many and was loved by her family, friends and colleagues.
‘Simone has been taken from us too soon, she will be sorely missed by her brother, grandmother and entire family.
‘Our hearts go out to all other families who have been affected by this terrible tragedy.’
In total, six people died in the mass methanol poisoning in Vang Vieng.
Bestfriends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, were on a trip of a lifetime from Melbourne when they died.
Two Danish women – Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21- and American Louis Hutson, 57, also lost their lives.
Holly’s dad Shaun said: ‘They were having an unbelievable time, just having so much fun, doing what two 19-year-old girls should be doing.
‘They were just having an absolute blast.’
Before Christmas, Bianca’s dad Mark said: ‘I would like to take this opportunity to urge the Laos government to investigate this to the fullest extent, to make sure this incident doesn’t happen again.’
Little is known about the investigation in Laos, beyond the closure of the hostel where the tourists were staying and the initial arrest of eight staff.
The government doesn’t freely share details, and it has refused to meet with the families.
‘We’ve heard nothing’, Mark told 60 Minutes. ‘I cannot have my daughter’s passing not mean anything.’
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