THE heartbroken mum of Brit lawyer Simone White has revealed her agonising journey to see her dying daughter after she was killed with methanol-laced booze.
Simone, 28, along with five other young backpackers, died just hours after drinking free vodka shots in party hub Laos.
The Brit lawyer from Kent was on a backpacking trip to Laos where she and her pals drank shots contaminated with methanol before falling ill.
The toxic chemical is sometimes used as a cheaper alternative to ethanol but can cause severe poisoning or death.
Simone’s heartbroken mum Sue White took two flights to Laos after she received a call to say that her daughter was in critical condition.
The mum has now revealed she knew her daughter was going to die.
She told The Sunday Times: “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.
Ms White described the 16-hour hellish journey she had to take to be with her daughter who was fighting to stay alive.
She added: “It was the worst experience of my life.
“I had to go through the whole flight thinking she was going through brain surgery. It was a terrible, terrible journey.”
The distraught mum also revealed the moment she saw her unconscious daughter as she arrived at the hospital.
“She had such beautiful long blonde hair, which had all been shaved off for the operation. It was the worst experience of my life,” she added.
Simone was staying in the backpacking hotspot Vang Vieng where five other tourists also died from suspected alcohol poisoning.
The lawyer and around 100 other guests at the Nana Backpackers hostel in the city were given free shots made with local Tiger Vodka, as a gesture of hospitality.
But it’s not clear whether the allegedly methanol-spiked drinks were consumed there – or exactly how many unwell tourists remain in hospital.
There have also been reports of possible poisoning victims from other venues in the area which served Tiger Vodka.
Simone and her friends soon headed to the hospital where they were initially diagnosed with food poisoning.
It was only a few hours later the Brit lawyer was told that the group was suffering from suspected acidosis – a medical condition where acid quickly builds up inside bodily fluids.
Simone was told she was the “worst affected”. She died on November 21.
Simone’s pal Bethany Clarke – who is unwell in hospital – was the first to raise the alarm on the Laos Backpacking Facebook group.
She wrote: “Urgent — please avoid all local spirits. Our group stayed in Vang Vieng and we drank free shots offered by one of the bars.
“Just avoid them as so not worth it. Six of us who drank from the same place are in hospital currently with methanol poisoning.”
Danish friends Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald, 21, died after they were left vomiting blood for 13 hours.
A witness who tried to help the pair reportedly told their grieving friend, who is gathering crucial testimonies in Vang Vieng, what happened before they died, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The testimony 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.
Eight employees at the Nana Backpacker hostel in Vang Vieng were taken into custody on Monday after workers reportedly refused to call an ambulance for dying guests.
The manager and bartender at the hostel Duong Duc Toan was investigated last week by local police and detained after several tourists were hospitalised.
He previously denied that any drinks served there could have made the holidaymakers ill.
Australian friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, also died following the suspected mass methanol poisoning.
The teens, from Melbourne, also stayed at the Nana Backpacker hostel.
The alarm was raised by staff after the teens failed to check out on the morning of November 13.
Bianca and Holly were rushed to separate hospitals in Bangkok, Thailand, as their families travelled to be with them.
Bianca tragically died on Thursday while Holly died just a day later.
Holly’s dad Shaun told Nine News: “It is with broken hearts, and we are so sad to say that our beautiful girl Holly is now at peace.
“We find comfort and solace in knowing that Holly bought so much joy and happiness to so many people.”
American man James Louis Hutson, 57, also died.
The Laotian government has finally spoken out about the tragedy and vowed to “bring the perpetrators to justice.”
They added: “The government of the Lao PDR reaffirms that it always attaches importance and pays attention to the safety of both domestic and foreign tourists.”
It is not yet known how these drinks could have been spiked but some locals revealed how a factory error could have led to the disaster, The Sun previously reported.
Anonymous sources said Tiger Vodka, which sells for 36p per bottle, was made on a site owned by the Laotian communist government, according to the Sun Herald.
The source said: “Everything is owned by the government, or at least 90 per cent government-owned.
“This could have been a mistake made at a government-owned factory, that is a possible reason as to why it happened.”
Some people have questioned why the already cheap drink could have been spiked with something cheaper and more toxic like methanol.
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.
