The man saw a metastatic light before he was blind

When Calum McDonald reached the Vietnamese border, he could not read administrative forms in front of him. All that he can see is “laparoscopic blindness.”

He had just got out of a bus overnight with his friends from the famous tourist destination of Fang Feng in Laos.

The previous day, the group was staying in a hostel where the free whiskey and vodka shots were offered to the guests. Calum was mixing them with soft drinks.

Only on the border, he was suspected of being a mistake in his eyesight – who told his friends.

“I remember the existence of this type of common light, blindness in my eyes and to the point that I could not see anything.

“(We agreed) was strange, but we thought he was poisoning my food and light that I was seeing was a kind of sensitivity,” he told BBC Breakfast.

But when they reached their destination in Vietnam, it was clear that there was a serious wrong thing.

“We were sitting in the hotel room, my friends and me, and I told them:” Why do we sit in the dark?

Calum, 23 years old, is now blind and tells his story for the first time. He was one of several victims Methanol poisoning in Vang Vieng Last November.

Six people died. Calum knew two of them – the Danish girls who met him on a night abroad.

All of them resided at the Nana’s hostel on the back of Nana.

Calum is now working with the families of three other British people who died after methanol poisoning in Southeast Asia.

They claim the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be more evident about the risks that people face when booking holidays in countries where methanol poisoning is a source of concern.

Simon White was One of these people.

The next day for Calum left Vang Vieng, SIMONE drunk free footage in the youth house. Earlier, my mother sent a text message saying that this was the best vacation ever.

Simon was accepted to the hospital in the following days and called her friend about her mother to inform her of what happened. Later, he rang again to say that Simon was in a coma.

Soo booked a trip immediately, but before she was able to take off, she received another call in the middle of the night from a doctor in Laos who was treating Simon.

He said) You need to give permission to urgent brain surgery or that it will not survive …

“I went out the next day, knowing that she was going through surgery and expected the worst, to be honest.”

The 28 -year -old He died in the hospital from methanol poisoning.

“It is very difficult to reconcile with what happened,” Soo says. “Nothing will return Simon.”

Methanol is a type of alcohol usually found in cleaning, fuel and freezing products. It resembles ethanol, which is used for alcoholic drinks, but it is more toxic to humans How to treat it by the body.

Alcoholic beverages can become polluted with methanol if they are manufactured badly.

It is a well -known problem with cheap lives in Southeast Asia where hundreds of people are poisoned every year, according to charitable doctors who do not have borders (MSF).

If you consume one of these contaminated drinks and suffer from methanol poisoning, symptoms can include dizziness, fatigue, headache and nausea.

For many people, it seems similar to normal backwardness, which makes it difficult to know if you poison or have a very few drinks.

After 12-48 hours, more serious problems such as seizures and blurry vision can appear. In severe cases, this can lead to complete blindness and leave the injured in a coma.

At least 30 ml of methanol can be a killer for humans.

If diagnosed within 10-30 hours after consumption, methanol poisoning can be treated successfully with dialysis.

Kirsty MCKIE, 38, died in 2022, but was not the result of accepting free shots.

She was enjoying drinks at home with a friend before a night in Bali – the Indonesian island, where she lived and working for eight years.

Her friend, Sonia Taylor, said they were as if they had very bad waste the next day before Kerasi was transferred to the hospital for treatment.

Sonia was drunk contaminated alcohol, but she survived.

“We had no idea,” says Sonia. “Perhaps this is the most difficult part for me, and he does not know why you live and someone else dies … He does not seem to have any rhyme or reason for a reason.”

On Sumatra, another Indonesian island, Cheznye Emmons He died after drinking the jinn This was later found that it contains 66,000 times the legal limit of methanol in drinks.

“I think the worst part of that … (was) before she started getting a tunnel, when she arrived at the hospital for the first time, she said to her friend:” I am really afraid, “said Cheesney’s mother Pamela BBC.

“It was basically the last time (I spoke).”

Calum advice for tourists is to avoid drinks and free spirits in general. “There is a lot of beautiful beer in Southeast Asia, and I am sure people will really enjoy it.”

He says that learning the death of the two Danish girls who met them in Fang Fing, other than his view on his general.

“Part of the way I dealt (I) was buried my head in the sand … I really felt, in many ways, that my life was not worth living.”

Calum is now learning to use cane and hope to apply for a guide to a guide.

“(Deaths) made me realize that I was very fortunate and felt very grateful because although I have some difficult consequences, many people were worse.

“I felt, given that I was lucky enough to survive, I have some responsibility for trying to prevent others.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the poisoning of methanol and fake alcohol as “a serious problem around the world” and said it is working with the local authorities and the travel industry to address this issue.

“We seek to clarify the risks to the British who travel abroad and raise awareness through our travel advice and Travel realization campaign“