Woman issues warning to travellers after cocktail left her blind
A woman has a shocking warning after a night out in Bali left her blind and fighting for her life.
Back in 2011, then 18-year-old Ashley King had gone to Bali, and like many 18-year-olds, she had been enjoying cocktails on the trip.
Ashley, from Canada, recalled how she had been unable to shake an ominous feeling when she was flying out to a tropical resort in Indonesia.
Throughout the holiday, the actor said she endured theft, discomfort, and sickness. But it was a seemingly innocuous cocktail on the final night of the trip which had horrifying consequences for Ashley.
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The cocktail was served in a plastic water bottle and was labelled as 'spill proof for dancing'.
Speaking to Inside Edition, she said that at first, there wasn't any noticeable difference.
She said: “Nothing felt different. I didn't feel any kind of differentness in like my feelings of like drunkness or the way my body was
feeling."
The following day, Ashley was due to head to New Zealand, but after arriving there, she began to experience worrying symptoms.
These included exhaustion, no appetite, and finally a terrifying sense of disorientation.
Ashley said: "When I woke up the next morning, the light was off and I thought that was a little funny. Like, why would someone turn my light off? And I went to the bathroom and I noticed the lighting in the bathroom was also really dim."
Ashley began to struggle to breathe, and went to the hospital.
At first, medics thought she had taken drugs, but were shocked when they found high levels of methanol in her body.
This is a different kind of alcohol from ethanol, the active ingredient in alcoholic drinks.
Ethanol is not safe to drink to excess, but methanol, which is sometimes added to drinks to cut costs, is far more dangerous.
As the body metabolises methanol, it becomes toxic, turning the blood acidic and damaging organs.
Drinking ethanol - the alcohol in beer and wine - helps to slow down that process. That meant that doctors had to prescribe a counterintuitive treatment for Ashley - drinking heavily.
"They had alcohol and orange juice, and they told me that I had to drink it incredibly quickly, that they couldn't give it to me through an IV, but that I had to consume it," Ashley explained.
"So, I would finish a drink and then they'd pour me another one, and then I'd finish a drink and they'd pour me another one.
"And they were encouraging me to drink it faster - it was like the most absurd drinking game I'd ever played."
Fortunately, the treatment worked, and Ashley was able to pull through and make a full recovery.
Kit Roberts