Bali - Another foreigner dies in suspected alcohol poisoning

[tinrobot]

Another foreigner dies in suspected alcohol poisoning

An American died on Monday from alleged alcohol poisoning after being treated for two days at Sanglah General Hospital, Bali, raising the total number of fatalities from the deadly alcohol mix to 23 in less than 10 days.

Forty-eight-year-old Rose Johnson was admitted to hospital on Saturday, suffering symptoms of severe poisoning, Sanglah's head of forensics, Ida Bagus Alit, said Monday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Samples of the patient's blood and stomach were sent to the National Police Laboratory in Denpasar.

Alit could had yet confirm the cause of Johnson's death, but said she had shown symptoms typically caused by consuming alcohol mixed with methanol.

Saturday saw the first death of a foreign victim in a spate of fatalities caused by suspected alcohol poisoning in Bali.

Earlier, a resident of Canggu, North Kuta, 59-year-old Briton Alan Colen, was found unconscious after having consumed arak that he had bought from a stall near his house. After being taken to Sanglah Hospital he was later pronounced dead by the attending physician.

The hospital had treated 51 people for alcohol poisoning since last Monday. Of that number, 18 are still undergoing treatment.

Mixing alcohol with other ingredients is not uncommon in Bali. Mixing arak with methanol increases the drink’s alcohol content, in some cases to poisonous levels.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/06/01/another-foreigner-dies-suspected-alcohol-poisoning.html

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I knew Rose, who was the victim of this most recent poisoning. She was a lovely woman and an amazing artist, recently married and had just moved to Bali to live in paradise.

If you're traveling there, please be careful with what you drink.

[barbtries]

1. so sorry for your loss

and for all the victims

[Ohio Joe]

2. RIP

Very sorry for your loss. Also, thanks for the heads up on this, it is the first I've heard.

[babylonsister]

3. That's so sad and I'm sorry for your loss.

RIP, Rose, Alan, and everyone else who died so needlessly. I hope the cops shut these places down.

That arak is nasty stuff to begin with, but then to mix it with methanol? Ugh. If anyone's going, stick to Bintang, the local beer. It's good, and goes through the regular processing that beer goes through.