THE heartbroken mum of Laos methanol poison victim, Simone White, has revealed the haunting final text the Brit lawyer sent to her.
Six unsuspecting tourists were tragically killed after drinking the same laced shots at a hostel bar in Vang Vieng last November.
Simone, 28 was among the victims after she was rushed to hospital in a near paralytic state before being placed on life support for three days.
Her mum Sue took a hellish 16-hour journey from Kent to Laos after hearing of her daughter’s grave condition.
She said she feared Simone would die after being called by the hospital who told her she needed emergency brain surgery.
After arriving at Laos hospital Sue was given the devastating ultimatum over whether to leave her daughter on life support or not.
Doctors refused to switch off the machine due to their religion – but told Sue she could do it herself.
The grieving mother shared the heartbreaking experience of having to remove a tube from her daughter’s mouth as she faced the excruciating decision to turn off life support.
Simone’s official cause of death was confirmed as a bleed on the brain, an inquest heard.
Reflecting on the events that transpired three months ago, Sue disclosed that she received a poignant text message from her daughter the day before the tragic incident unfolded.
Speaking on Australia’s 60 Minutes news show, Sue said the message read: “I’m having the best time, you know, it’s an absolutely fantastic holiday.”
Recalling the message, Sue said, “That communication marked the final contact I had with her, shortly before the tragic events took place, late on a Tuesday in Laos.”
“She’d messaged me as it was all happening but that was the final message I got from her.”
On the same show, Simone’s close pal Bethany Clarke spoke about the harrowing evening when the countless shots were taken.
Bethany had met the lawyer in Southeast Asia to explore the country and miraculously survived the vodka poisoning.
Bethany says she remembers watching the bartender pour the toxic drinks but had no clue anything was wrong.
The friends woke up the next day feeling incredibly lethargic and only slightly ill, she said.
She told 60 Minutes she felt “not that bad, I didn’t think anything bad was going to happen”.
But now Bethany revealed that lethargy was a symptom of the methanol poisoning.
She said: “You just physically can’t move, you’re more or less paralysed.
“You can still walk but everything is much, much, much more difficult than it would be ordinarily.”
Their symptoms became worse and Bethany started feeling nauseous, incredibly fatigued, and she even fainted.
The pair were taken to hospital by other travellers, where Simone began to have seizures and could no longer breathe on her own.
Bethany has made a full recovery, despite drinking the same number of shots as Simone.
She said it has been difficult coming to terms that she survived while Simone died.
Bethany said: “I think we’ve just had to try and get through the funeral and obviously we want to try and spread awareness and make sure other people don’t have to go through this.
“And then I can sort of start on my own journey of trying to come to terms with it all.”
Eight employees at Nana Backpackers Hostel were arrested over the poisoning, but all were released from custody.
No charges have been laid for the six deaths and the hostel has been closed.
The hostel manager, Duong Duc Toan, and a bartender, Toan Van Vanng, previously denied allegations that methanol was in drinks.
Toan said he bought the alcohol from a licensed seller and said the free shots were given to 100 people.
The hostel manager claimed other guests had not reported being ill and he took a shot in front of cops.
One pal claimed staff refused to call an ambulance and a female worker massaged the toes and feet of one of the Danish women while she was having a seizure.
Danish friends Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald, 21, died after they were left vomiting blood for 13 hours.
Australian friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, also died in the tragedy.
The alarm was raised by staff over their condition after the teens failed to check out on the morning of November 13.
Why is methanol so deadly?
METHANOL is a super-toxic version of alcohol that may be present in drinks if added by crooks to make them stronger or if they are brewed or distilled badly, writes The Sun’s health correspondent Sam Blanchard.
The consequences can be devastating because as little as a single shot of contaminated booze could be deadly, with just 4ml of methanol potentially enough to cause blindness.
Prof Oliver Jones, a chemist at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, said: “The body converts methanol to formic acid.
“Formic acid blocks the action of an enzyme that is critical to how the body uses oxygen to generate energy.
“If it stops working, cells cannot take up or use oxygen from the blood and lack of oxygen causes problems in a range of organs as the cells start to die.
“Symptoms of methanol poisoning include vomiting, seizures and dizziness.
“The optic nerve seems to be particularly vulnerable to methanol toxicity, so there is the potential for temporary or permanent blindness, and even death.
“While thankfully rare, methanol poisoning is very serious, and treatment should be given at a hospital.”
An unexpected but key way of treating methanol poisoning is to get the patient drunk with normal alcohol – known as ethanol – to distract the liver and stop it processing the methanol.
