A friend of the Danish women who died following the mass poisoning event in Laos that claimed six lives including two young Australian women has delivered an account of the response by hostel staff after the incident, contradicting some previous reports.
The traveller recounted his own experience, and collated those of other people, in an anonymous document that has now been reported widely across multiple media outlets.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Nat Barr delivers powerful message to grieving fathers after Laos tragedy.
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The document at times contradicts what has been reported by local media about the response to the alleged poisonings in the tourist town of Vang Vien.
The man’s friends Anne-Sofie Coyman, 20, and Freja Sorensen, 21, died in a Laos hospital. Australians Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, British lawyer Simone White and American James Hutson, 57, have also died from methanol poisoning.
In the man’s document, one woman said hostel staff would not call an ambulance for one of the Danish women even after they began to have a seizure.
She had returned to the hostel from taking one of the women to hospital, and found the other woman on the floor “dripping in sweat and having a full seizure”, according to the document.
When she asked hostel staff for help, a female staff member instead allegedly massaged the Dane’s feet instead and said it was only a panic attack and she was “saving her, don’t worry”.
“(The staff member) said she didn’t need an ambulance and that (the Danish woman) was just panicking and needed to calm down,” the fellow traveller said.
The seizing woman eventually got to the hospital by taking a taxi.
Both girls had been vomiting blood for several hours, the document said.
“(One of the women) told me that she was sick and had never been so sick before — she said she had been vomiting all night and day,” the document creator said.
Local media reported that Coyman and Sorensen were found on their bathroom floor and assisted by staff.
Eight staff members from Nana Backpacker Hostel are currently assisting with the police investigation.
The Danish women’s friend made his way to Vang Vieng, but could not contact them.
“After searching for a whole day I overheard a story about a sick girl getting hospitalised and that she had been staying at Nana Backpackers Hostel,” he said.
“I rushed there and showed the staff their names and photos.”
He claims that hostel staff informed him the women had checked out and separated, which he did not believe.
“The girls are best friends, so I thought that they would have been together,” he said.
He tried unsuccessfully to get information from local hospitals, and eventually contacted one of the women’s parents.
The man claims staff at one of the hospitals he contacted laughed when he used a translation app to communicate with them.
“I got angry … so I took a book I could see off the counter, which I rightfully guessed would be a patient information book,” he said.
“I saw (one of the women’s) name, and the notes stated that she was in (Vientiane) in a coma.”
He asked one of the women’s parents to send someone to Vientiane, while booking a bus there himself for the next day.
Overnight, he heard from one of the girls’ parents telling him he no longer needed to go as their deaths had been confirmed.
‘We miss our daughters desperately’
It is unclear how many people have been affected by the alleged mass poisoning incident. Guardian Australia reports a third Australian, who is also a dual national, has fallen ill.
They are said to be in a stable condition and are believed to be receiving assistance from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
The bodies of Melbourne best friends Jones and Bowles were flown home on Tuesday.
Speaking on behalf of both families at Melbourne Airport on Tuesday night, Bianca’s father, Mark Jones, thanked the community for its support in Australia and abroad during what has been a “horrendous time for us”.
“We want to grieve … we miss our daughters desperately,” he said.
“I was happy to hear there has been some movement over in Laos.
“We will make every effort we can to help raise awareness of methanol poisoning.
“We cannot have our girls passing and this continuing to happen.”