Woman who went blind after drinking tainted cocktail issues chilling warning: ‘A shot can kill you’

A Canadian woman warns social media users about the dangers of methanol-laced alcohol after losing her eyesight in Bali.

A Canadian woman who lost her eyesight after she drank a toxic cocktail while on a holiday in Bali is now warning social media users to be careful while consuming booze. Her warning comes months after seven tourists were hospitalised in Fiji after drinking tainted booze at a luxury resort bar and six travellers died in Laos under similar circumstances.

The chemical is usually used to stretch the supply of cheap alcohol in some countries and sold to bars and hotels to earn profits. (Representational)

The tourists got sick or died after they unknowingly consumed alcoholic beverages mixed with methanol. “It smells no different and it tastes no different from the alcohol that we typically drink,” said Ashley King, who went blind after drinking a cocktail laced with methanol while backpacking through Bali.

While methanol, which is clear and colourless, smells like ethanol, it’s extremely toxic to humans and is used in gasoline, paint thinner and wiper fluids. “Just as little as 30 millilitres of it or a shot can kill you, and 15 millilitres of it can make you go blind, have organ failure, liver damage and even brain damage,” she warned.

The chemical is usually used to stretch the supply of cheap alcohol in some countries and sold to bars and hotels to earn profits. King visited Bali in 2011 before starting college and drank vodka cocktails at a high-end bar.

For the next wo days, she suffered a bad hangover but dismissed it until she reached New Zealand and went to sleep. When she woke up, she could not see anything in her room.

Rushed to the hospital, the methanol found in her blood was so high that doctors were shocked to see her awake. “Losing my eyesight is the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through, and I deal with it every single day,” she said in a TikTok video.

While early symptoms can be like a hangover, including dizziness, nausea and vomiting, within 72 hours, these can turn into blurry vision, trouble breathing and severe abdominal pain. Doctors say methanol poisoning can be treated if medical help is sought within 10 to 30 hours. Surprisingly, drinking alcohol can help flush methanol from the system.

Statistics show that Asia has the highest prevalence of methanol poisoning in countries like Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Some tips to avoid methanol poisoning include sticking to alcohol sold in licensed liquor stores, bars, hotels, and established markets, refusing free drinks from strangers and when in doubt, choosing pre-packaged options like beer or wine.