Cheznye
Emmons, 23, has life support machine turned off after drinking methanol from a
bottle labelled as gin
guardian.co.uk,
Martin Williams, Saturday 18 May 2013
A British backpacker has died after drinking poisoned alcohol in the Indonesian jungle.
Cheznye Emmons was trekking with her boyfriend and another traveller in the Indonesian jungle when they drank the methanol. Photograph: Peter Lawson/East News Press Agency |
A British backpacker has died after drinking poisoned alcohol in the Indonesian jungle.
Cheznye
Emmons, 23, had bought a bottle labelled "gin" from a shop, which
turned out to be deadly methanol. The beauty therapist from Essex had been
trekking with her boyfriend and another man they met while travelling.
All three
suffered health problems after drinking the methanol, which can cause kidney
failure, blindness, seizures and death. Emmons lost her sight and was taken
through the jungle to the nearest eye clinic. She was referred to hospital
where she was placed in an induced coma.
Her parents
flew to Indonesia where they eventually decided to turn off her life support
machine.
A Foreign
Office spokesman said: "We can confirm the death of a British national in
Indonesia and we are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult
time."
Her
brother, Michael Emmons, said: "We're all just in shock. From what we
understand, the shop poured the gin out of the original bottle and then
replaced it with methanol. It was in the original bottle with the gin label on
it. As far as we're aware, the shop has been shut and there's a police
investigation."
Home-brewed
spirits are common in Indonesia because of an alcohol tax of more than 200%,
but methanol is a by-product of poor distillation techniques.
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