Warwick Resort Fiji alcohol 'poisoning' victim speaks after near-death experience
By
Lice Movono
and
Nick Sas
, ABC News
'Susan' asked not to be identified to protect her 18-year-old daughter who had been traumatised from the incident in Fiji.
Photo:
ABC News / supplied
It was supposed to be a relaxing mother-daughter holiday in Fiji - and for the most part, it was.
Staying at the Warwick Resort, one of Fiji's most well-known and trusted establishments, Susan (not her real name), 58, and her 18-year-old daughter were on their final day of what she says was an almost perfect holiday.
They toured a local village, snorkelled and relaxed around the pool.
Then, in the afternoon, Susan's daughter bought a pina colada cocktail from the Warwick Resort pool bar where they were staying. It's a decision that would change both of their lives.
The group taken to hospital were drinking at the five-star Warwick Resort.
Photo:
ABC News / Bose Vavataga
"She came up to the room with the cocktail and said, 'Mum, try this, it tastes really weird,'" Susan told the ABC.
"So I had two sips of the cocktail, and said 'hmmm, you know, not sure'."
Fast forward five hours, and Susan was unconscious. She spent the next three days in an induced coma in a Fijian hospital, intubated and fighting for her life.
She was then flown on an emergency medivac mission out of Fiji and spent a further week in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Australia.
"I've spent the last five months trying to recover," she said. "Without [the help we got], I would be dead."
In December,
Fiji's Warwick Resort made global headlines
after authorities revealed seven tourists, including Susan, had been taken to hospital with suspected alcohol poisoning after drinking pina coladas at the resort's pool bar.
The revelation came less than a month after the deaths of Melbourne teenagers Holly Bowles from methanol poisoning
after drinking tainted alcohol at a hostel in Laos
.
At the time, it was feared that the seven tourists in Fiji may have also consumed methanol.
Four days after the incident, Fiji's government released the results of its tests of the drinks, declaring there was "no methanol" found.
And in March, three months after the incident - and after multiple delays -
it revealed the results of blood and urine samples sent to New Zealand
, declaring again there was "no methanol".
But now, more than five months on, it is still unclear what actually caused the seven tourists, including Susan, to suffer such a horrific reaction on that Saturday afternoon in December, and be taken to hospital.
No one has ever been interviewed about the incident, until now.
Susan, who spoke to the ABC on the condition she not be identified to protect her daughter who is "traumatised" after watching the events unfold in Fiji, said she is crystal clear about what happened to her.
"I believe that the alcohol we consumed was tainted and that we were poisoned," she said.
"The only commonality between the seven victims was that we were all in the pool, and we all drank a pina colada within an hour of each other."
Susan was in a coma for three days and later spent a week in intensive care.
Photo:
ABC News / supplied
She believes there has been a "cover-up", in part to protect Fiji's multimillion-dollar tourism industry. And, she said, the group of seven guests involved in the incident are speaking to a lawyer to explore action against the resort, which she said had failed in its duty of care.
"We want some sort of acceptance of responsibility, probably from the Warwick, foremost, but also from the Fiji authorities who we feel have tried to shut down or underplay what happened."
After initially agreeing to an interview, the Warwick Hotel later declined the ABC's request. It also declined to answer any questions.
Susan remembers the day in question clearly up until she fell into a coma. She remembers her daughter buying the drink, tasting it, then going snorkelling.
"By the time I got out, [my daughter] found me, and she was hysterical, she was having like an allergic-type reaction to the drink," she said.
"Her hands were shaking, she said her mouth was really tingly, and when she drunk water it tasted like sand."
They were both taken to the local clinic, then to the Lautoka Hospital, when Susan also started to get the shakes and what she described as "the same mouth feel".
"I could feel I was starting to lose control," she said.
"By that stage, some of the other Warwick Resort guests had started to come in [to the hospital].
"There were eight beds in there, and pretty much all of the beds became full of Warwick guests. I could see in the room that other people were going to various states of seizures and other experiences.
"I was going downhill very fast. I was shaking violently and I could see the other medical staff were busy with the other patients, and I was like, 'don't forget about me', and that's all I remember. That's the last time I was conscious."
Susan, along with another one of the guests, was intubated.
Specialists later told her that her heart went into "stress cardiomyopathy" due to what was happening with her brain following the seizures, and her heart function went down to 25 percent, with fluid build-up around her heart.
Susan has had a stroke previously, and her scans showed additional damage around her frontal lobe following the incident.
Susan says she will keep pushing for answers so no one else has to go through what she did.
Photo:
ABC News / Emma Rennie
Susan, a financial accounts manager, hasn't been able to work since the incident and, because of her seizures, her driver's licence has been cancelled.
Now, as she continues to recover, she's searching for answers.
"We're frustrated because we've got no real evidence of what happened to us, that's the most frustrating thing, [and we feel] that's been blatantly done, a cover-up."
She said the Fijian authorities promised to get the alcohol ingredients independently tested, which never happened.
Fiji's Tourism Minister Viliame Gavoka declined an interview, but in a statement said he "deeply regrets the unfortunate circumstances" encountered by the visitors during their stay.
"We wish to assure everyone that Fiji remains a safe and welcoming destination for tourists," he said.
He said the Fijian government has been working in close collaboration with the respective government representatives in Suva to keep them informed and provide necessary support.
He said the Fijian government collaborated with the New Zealand government to ensure a "thorough and independent analysis" of the samples taken.
"We wish to reiterate that initial testings did not reveal any presence of illicit substances," he said.
Susan and her daughter are in a WhatsApp group with the fellow five Warwick Hotel guests involved, which she says has been a "great support".
She said the Warwick Hotel has never contacted them since the incident, and they will keep pressing for answers.
"Why haven't you reached out to the victims? Or offered any sort or apology?" she said.
"I don't want this to happen to any future guest. It was so traumatising."
- ABC News
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