Australian brain damaged after drinking toxic cocktail at Indonesia resort island

[News_Editor]

Australian brain damaged after drinking toxic cocktail at Indonesia resort island

2011-10-12 11:29:23 GMT+7 (ICT)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (BNO NEWS) -- An Australian nurse has fallen ill after drinking a toxic alcoholic beverage at an Indonesian resort island, local media reported on Wednesday. She is currently hospitalized after eventually suffering from brain damage and kidney failure.

Jamie Johnston, 25, of Newcastle in New South Wales, who was holidaying with her mother at Indonesia's popular resort island of Bali, drank a popular local rice wine known as arak when she fell ill about three weeks ago, the Newcastle Herald reported. The beverage was a mixture of arak and fruit juice and was consumed at the Happy Cafe restaurant on the neighboring island of Lombok.

However, after the severity of the incident, investigations were launched and test results revealed that the beverage contained methanol, which is commonly used as anti-freeze in paint. The traditional beverage of arak is made from fermented rice, palm sap, and other base ingredients.

Johnston, a nurse at the John Hunter Hospital, did not seek medical attention until she collapsed at the airport as she awaited her flight back home. Emergency teams transferred her to a local hospital in Bali and she was later flown back to Australia.

Johnston is currently at Darwin Hospital where she has been receiving treatment for brain damage and kidney failure, the report said. Efforts are ongoing to transfer her to the John Hunter Hospital.

New South Wales Health Minister Jillian Skinner said the incident was a tragic reminder of the care tourists need to take when traveling overseas. The minister described the situation as 'tragic,' noting that Australians love traveling to Bali.

"It is horrific to think that simply by enjoying a few cocktails on a family holiday this young nurse is now facing a very grim future," Skinner stated. "If you are visiting Bali, I urge you to take out medical insurance and seek help immediately from any one of the medical centers on Bali or Lombok if you start to feel ill."

In 2009, a batch of arak contaminated with methanol killed at least 25 people in Bali.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-10-12

[LJW]

Another reason not to drink any alcohol

[jeanelie]

It is an Indonesian speciality and mostly drunk by locals. Arak is a liquor found throughout Indonesia that is distilled from tuak, a sweet wine made from the coconut palm flower, or from brem, which is a wine made from black glutinous rice and coconut milk. It is a speciality mostly drunk by locals and to be sold in plastic bags in small shops (sometimes in bottles). The methanol can occur as a side product from not professionnal preparation of alcohol. Drinking this gives the effect of being drunk but gets poissonous a day later and canmake you loose sight and eventually kill you from severe breathing problems.

[tonglen]

Another reason not to drink any alcohol

And your myopic post is another reason for you not to post again. Arak is unregulated back-yard grog occasionally made of dodgy ingredients.

So calm your anti-alcohol rant down......and have a regulated, refreshing drink.

[uhuh]

Another reason not to drink any alcohol

And your myopic post is another reason for you not to post again. Arak is unregulated back-yard grog occasionally made of dodgy ingredients.

So calm your anti-alcohol rant down......and have a regulated, refreshing drink.

This year in august, a German girl (on her honeymoon) who had drunk arak on Lombok, died from methanol intoxication (after being airlifted from Bali to Singapore).

Not a very unusual diagnosis for doctors in Bali.

[NanLaew]

Bartender! A pint of arak please!!