The Current - This woman woke up blind after drinks tainted with methanol

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

Ashley King woke up blind just a few days after her drinks were tainted with methanol during a night out on vacation in Bali. She’s sharing her story, and warning others of the fatal consequences of methanol poisoning, in a new podcast called Static: A Party Girl's Memoir.

On Mother's Day 1985, Philadelphia did something unthinkable. The city had been engaged in a standoff with a radical organization called MOVE. The helicopter takes off, then... The city dropped a bomb on MOVE's headquarters, killing 11 people, five of them children. My daughters were taken away by this corrupt government! Why is it so many have never heard of the MOVE bombing? Black people will never get justice in America. The Africa's versus America,

available now everywhere you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current Podcast. I had one more night left in Bali, so I might as well make the most of it, right? Hey, can I get a vodka OJ please? Oh, and served in plastic water bottles. Perfect for spill-free dancing.

Drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink! Ash, how's my hair look? What about the shot? Woo! Where's my purse? Ash, let's go talk to those boys. But let's go dance. Ashley King was 19 years old on holiday in Bali when her travelling adventures took a turn.

After that night out dancing, she flew to New Zealand and wound up in hospital. The owner of the hostel dropped her off. What's her name? Ashley King. She's a Canadian tourist. And what's the patient's status now? She's hyperintensive and tachycardic. Both pupils are dilated at six millimetres and her vision is deteriorating.

Her symptoms indicate late stage metabolic acidosis. Her breathing has worsened since she arrived. She's critical. We may have to intubate. It looks like poisoning. It might be methanol poisoning. Ashley, can you see me? Ashley King woke up blind. Those drinks in Bali had been poisoned with methanol. She tells her story in a podcast called Static, a party girl's memoir.

And the launch of her audio memoir happened to coincide with the recent news that six tourists died in Bali. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident.

The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a car accident. The news was that the two women were in a podcast called Static, a party girl's memoir, and the launch of her audio memoir happened to coincide with the recent news that six tourists died in Laos after suspected methanol poisoning at a hostel.

Ashley King joins us from our Calgary studio. Ashley, good morning. Hello, thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. You have an incredible story and I want to talk to you about it, but when you hear the news of Laos, what goes through your mind based on what you've been through? It makes me really sad. I know that this continues to happen, but it's something that

I would never wish on anybody. And so when I hear that it's still happening and it's taking lives and there's families out there that are being affected, like my family was affected, I have a lot of empathy for those families and those victims, but it also makes me angry that this is happening. So this was 13 years ago when, when you went through all of this, as I mentioned, you're 19 years old, your holiday in, in Bali. Tell me a little bit about what happened. Yeah.

So I had, I was taking a gap year between high school and university and I was living in Australia and Bali is quite close to Australia. A lot of folks go over there the way that we go down to Mexico here in Canada and I went over there for 35 days and it was my last night in Bali and I went out for some drinks with the people that I was with and the night of didn't seem particularly special in any way. The drinks weren't any particularly special in any way, but it was a very westernized touristy bar recommended in Lonely Planet books.

So I didn't think anything of it. I flew to New Zealand the next day for the next part of my trip and throughout my travels to New Zealand, I was starting to feel really icky and had a lot of anxiety and I kind of chalked it up to just traveling on my own and the anxiety that you have when you're traveling. There was a lot of things that I could just think of an excuse for, but it wasn't until I woke up in my hostel and I wasn't able to breathe and shortly after I wasn't able to see and it was very clear I needed medical attention.

Once I got to a hospital, I was in the dark blind, and it wasn't until my doctors did some tests and realized that there's a large amount of methanol in my system, and that was something that I was not expecting to hear, because I didn't even know what methanol was. What do you know now about what happened to you then? As you said, I said, you're partying

and you're at bars that other people are at and you have another drink as we just heard. What do you know about what happened and how the substance ended up in your drink? So what I know now is that methanol is something that is a byproduct in the distillation of alcohol and a lot of countries around the world, especially developing countries like Bali, what they'll do is that they will refill bottles that are familiar to consumers. So think of like a Smirnoff bottle, and that'll be refilled with homemade alcohol, whether it's bought off the black market and it's been distilled properly. Some folks say that methanol is added to it to increase the volume of it

and then that's just sold. So that night I would have been drinking what I would have thought was westernized liquors like Smirnoff. But what I really was drinking was homemade alcohol that had been refilled in bottles that I was being illegally served that were tainted with methanol. And did you have any idea that you were drinking bootleg alcohol or did you think that you were drinking the brands that people know? I thought I was drinking the brands that people know. As a young traveler, you think about being drugged in a bar, so you watch your drink

that way and you watch, that's kind of what you're looking out for and kind of what I've always been taught to look out for when it comes to drinking. But when you're being served bottles that you're familiar with, you assume you're being served what they say. It never crossed my mind that these bottles would be refilled with tainted alcohol. And that, as you said in the podcast, essentially this methanol was turning your blood into acid. Yeah.

So methanol, when you consume it, what makes it bad for you is when your body starts to metabolize it. And so your body will start to metabolize the methanol and turn your blood into an acid and make it really acidic. And so as it goes through your body, it's basically burning all of your organs. And what's really delicate is your optic nerves.

And so that toxic blood will make it to your eyes and it will burn your optic nerves. And so I was quite fortunate that I didn't have any other organ damage, but that is something that could have been very much the case for me. So what happened when you got to that hospital in New Zealand?

So when I got there, I wasn't able to breathe and I wasn't able to see and the doctors were very obviously uncertain what was wrong with me. The symptoms that I was showing wasn't something that they normally see in a young person. And by this point, it was Friday morning. The last time I had had this drink was Tuesday night with all the travel time in between. So the idea that that was what was making me sick wasn't even in my mind or on my radar. And they were trying to figure out like, were you out partying last night?

Did you take any drugs? Did you consume anything? And I was like, if I had Subway yesterday, I don't know what could possibly be wrong with me. And I think it got a little bit scary when they started taking pictures of my eyes and it was doctor after doctor asking me questions and then they were getting in contact with my family back home in Canada. And when they finally came back to me and said that there was a large amount of methanol

in my system and did I know why, I was like, well, I was just in Bali. And what I had read months prior before when I was deciding to go to Bali, I had read on one lonely planet blog that in the past, foreigners had gotten sick from homemade alcohol and had methanol poisoning. So in my mind, that meant I won't drink any homemade alcohol. Like I won't drink on the streets. Like I just won't do that. That didn't cross my mind that that would mean restaurants and bars and places where you would purchase alcohol or even liquor stores. And when I was looking up going to Bali and I looked on the Canadian website for travel, there were no travel warnings against methanol poisoning.

There are now, but at the time there wasn't. So it really was something that was completely foreign to me. And of course, once the doctors were able to figure out what it was, they were able to treat me, but the way that they treat you with methanol poisoning, the first thing that they do is they actually get you drunk. Can you explain that? I mean, they give you what they call a screwdriver. Yes, exactly. So, when your body has pure ethanol in it, so good alcohol, your body will stop breaking down the methanol and instead break down the alcohol. So, they were like, we have to give you this drink and we can't give it to you through an IV and you have

to drink it very, very quickly and it's not going to taste very good. And it was orange juice mixed with their version of vodka, whatever they serve in the hospital. And I just remember they'd pour me one drink, I'd chug it really quickly, they'd pour me another one and they were, you know, in the nicest way that a doctor can, like egging me on to drink faster and drink it quickly Sounds like the kind of thing that might be fun in a club But not so not so good in a hospital not so good in a hospital and Just the thing that you don't hear when you're in the hospital being treated

You don't go into a hospital sober and come out drunk But the drunker I got the more I could breathe the more I could see I was getting light back in my eyes I was able to see what was going on. But then, of course, at that point, they're wheeling me into ICU to do dialysis and take all my blood out, but I'm drunk at this point. So I think the situation is not that serious anymore because why would I? But meanwhile, they were calling my family back in Canada and asking them to get on the first flight to New Zealand because there was a good chance I might not make it. You spent a month in the hospital? I did. So, they had, I was in ICU for a couple of days and then I was in a ward and then

I just started seeing doctors to treat my eyes because at that point, once they had stabilized me, the biggest damage that was causing my body was my optic nerves. And because methanol poisoning isn't something that happens very commonly, especially in first world countries, and most people who do have methanol poisoning, it has an 80% mortality rate. Most people do die from it. So, the fact that I was alive was a big thing to overcome, but my eyesight was something that they were very cautious that I might not get back, but they would try what they could. And what's your eyesight like now?

What's the long term impact on your eyesight? I've got about 2% of my eyesight left. 2%? Yeah. So what can or can't you see? I take in light. I see everything, this is a little bit of giveaway, but I see everything in static, which hence the name of the podcast. everything, this is a little bit of giveaway, but I say everything in static, which, hence

the name of the podcast. It's written kind of in a sepia, yellowish tone. I don't see color. I can't read or write. I obviously don't drive. I don't see depth. So I can see everything is really blurry and distorted around me through like static, but I can see like contrast.

So that's kind of how I see shapes and shadows and whatnot. So yeah, it's not great. I was going to say, what is that like to live with? It's really, it's hard. I mean, you're speaking to me 13 years later where I've gone to a lot of therapy, a lot of rehabilitation. I've learned to live my life the way that it is now. I kind of forget what it's like to see well when someone sees something super far away. I'm like, oh my God, you can see that. I forget what it's like to see well. I don't dream sighted anymore. I used to dream sighted for a very long time and now I dream as Ashley,

the blind individual. And so it's hard. I went through a lot of really, really, really hard years of adapting and wondering why me. I was so young when this happened. I had what I thought my whole life ahead of me and so much to look forward to. But it's really hard to imagine all the dreams that you have for yourself when you're presented with this insurmountable challenge of dealing with vision loss to such a degree that I did. You said that you dream not as a sighted person, but as somebody who is now blind.

I mean, what are your dreams like? Well, so for a very long time, which was really hard to address too, was that I would dream like Ashley with perfect sight. I would see color, I would see what I was doing in my dreams, and I would tell everybody in my dreams that I would live like a sighted person. But it's been so long now that in my dreams, I'll tell people, oh sorry, I'm blind in my dreams or things aren't as clear, aren't as crisp. I often dream in places that I remembered really well when I could see. So dreams always take place in like my junior high or high school or people who were in

my life now, like my current partner who I've only ever met with vision loss. He'll be on the body as somebody I knew when I was totally sighted. I'm Sarah Trelevin, and for over a year I've been working on one of the most complex stories I've ever covered. There was somebody out there who was faking pregnancies. I started like warning everybody. Every doula that I know. It was fake. No pregnancy.

And the deeper I dig, the more questions I unearth. How long has she been doing this? What does she have to gain from this? From CBC and the BBC World Service, The Con, Caitlin's baby. It's a long story. Settle in. Available now. The amazing thing is you're alive. I mean, what you have gone through is extraordinary, but you are here to be able to tell this story.

And that in part, I mean, comes out in this podcast as you reconnect with the doctor who treated you in New Zealand when it wasn't sure that you were actually gonna survive. That doctor's name is Dr. Paul Gee. Have a listen to this. This is part of your conversation from the podcast. Based on my symptoms that you saw, how close was I to death or how bad was I that day? I would love to hear from your perspective. Yeah, I think you got about as close to dying as you can get.

I think you're very lucky that you're young and fit and healthy and that you got to us quickly enough for us to work out what was going on and start treatment. There are a number of measures that we use to predict the outcome or prognosis and one of them was the amount of acid in your blood and if it had been a little bit higher, it could have ended quite differently. The methanol and the metabolites that were accumulating shut down every cell in your body and that's why nothing was working.

That was why you were feeling short of breath. That was your body, your anxiety was your body telling you that things are very, very wrong. What is that like to hear? He says that you were as close to dying as you could get. It was really hard to hear. And a little bit later on in our conversation, it really gets to me and I get a bit emotional

because I've lived through it now and I've overcome it now. But when he hearing my doctor actually say it, really solidifies like I might not have made it. I could not be here today. And I have to look at like, there must be a reason why I am here today because so many people do die from this. Why do you think you survived? Um, I think a bit of luck, but I hope because there's a greater purpose for me.

I hope that there's a reason for me to be here. And, and part of that, I think it is my duty to share my story and spread awareness about methanol poisoning because, you know, I've been sharing this story for the last 13 years and every time it's somebody new who's never heard about methanol poisoning. And I think by sharing it, I'm saving hopefully a life or another person from being poisoned by it. I mean, part of that purpose is also, there's a medical journal article that's been written about you, right?

There is, there is. I never did I think I'd be in a medical journal. No, we generally don't. But I mean, what is that like? I think it's really great because it also, it helps other doctors be aware of the symptoms when someone comes into a hospital. Like my doctors say, I was actually able to speak with them and I was coherent and I could give them information that was helpful in them figuring out my diagnosis.

But some doctors might not have that opportunity and so they have to just go by what the tests are saying to them. And so my journal would at least be able to show other doctors what this looks like, what the onset symptoms look like when someone's coming in to emerge, especially in other third world countries where if I was hospitalized in Bali, I don't know if I would be here. I don't know if I would have been as lucky as I was that day in New Zealand. What was it like when you came home to Calgary,

having gotten out of the hospital, having survived this, but gone through an awful lot? Really terrible because not only was I coming home on something that I had just survived, that was so the last thing that I would ever expect it to happen to me, but I had just finished several months abroad backpacking and being on my own at like 18 and I was going to come back and go to university and now I was coming

back to learn how to be a blind person. Like that was not on my agenda. That was not what I was expecting and coming back to something like the car that I no longer could drive or the street that I could so easily walk up and down and cross on my own I no longer could do. Little things, I think I came back in a lot of denial that I was as blind as I was. I thought I could do all the things that I did before, you know, going out with my friends and I was very persistent that I was going to go back to traveling.

But I was just a very, I was a baby blind person that needed to learn how to live the life with a new pair of eyes and come over that emotionally and physically. But what was it that got you through that? I mean, again, you earlier said one of the things you asked was, why me? So how did you answer that question to yourself? I had to kind of look at like, why not me? I've reversed that question. Like why, what makes me so unspecial or special that like this would happen to me?

But why wouldn't it happen to me? Like this could have happened to anybody. And it took like my family and my friends and people really being able to be there for me to say, you know, people aren't going to treat you differently, like, people are still going to accept you, because that was a big thing I was worried about, was that I was now going to deal with ableism, which I had never dealt with before. And you know, this new idea of being treated differently by society because I had a disability. And, you know, for a long time, I couldn't even say that I was disabled because

it just, it didn't feel like that was my life. A lot of people meet me and think, oh, you're so positive and you're so outgoing and you must've just, you know, got back up on the horse and got back to life. I'm like, but it wasn't like that. I spent, you know, got back up on the horse and got back to life. I'm like, but it wasn't like that. I spent, you know, a lot of years just being sad and, you know, a lot. It took a lot of firsts. Like the first time that I was able to go snowboarding on my own was an accomplishment. I was okay if I can do this. Like I can keep on doing it.

Or the first time I finally did go on a trip again and backpack the fact that I wasn't able to manage that. When I was able finally to go back to university, kind of checking off those bucket list things, I was like, okay, I'm going to live the life that I thought I was going to live. I'm just taking a really weird roundabout way of getting there. How does talking about this help you? Because there's a podcast, the podcast is based on a play that you wrote and you acted in. And you could imagine that there might be a stigma that is attached, if you don't mind me saying, to something like this, right? Do you know what I mean?

Yeah. That there are people who might say, this happened to you, but you were in a bar and you were drinking and that can be hard to talk about because people will put something on you. It's not your fault, but people will put that on you. Do you know what I mean? So how does talking about that help? Totally. And I definitely, and I've received that over the years, you know, people who hear the story and they're like, well, she probably was doing something to make this happen to her. Like, she probably deserved it. She's probably being, you know, a silly

backpacker or a dumb girl or something like that. And me being able to talk about it has allowed me to reclaim the narrative and retell a story that has been the most traumatic thing that's ever happened to me by far and turn it into something that actually brings me joy to perform and to share, but also has had an impact on the audiences. First in the play that I wrote and performed, and now in this podcast. And I lean into the character of this silly party girl because that's what people anticipate, but I'm like, there's much more to it than that. And then also being able to like, well, if that's the character that I've introduced

everybody to, why can't that character still exist? Why can't somebody with a disability still be this fun party girl energy, you know, opposed to this idea where people with disabilities all of a sudden now seclude to their basements and don't have a life worth living that so often is, you know, portrayed upon people. And we often see sometimes in the media a very like sad, lonely life that people with disabilities live, which is so far from the truth. You said you were also angry though.

And I wonder whether, I mean, did anything happen to that bar in Bali? No. And that also is, yeah, a big part of the anger. When I was in the hospital, they asked if I wanted to get in touch with the police, but I had just spent 35 days in Bali and I had seen the corruption that was there and I was like, there's no way that anything's going to come of this and maybe something would have, but there are other people out there in Australia, for example, where they have lost a family member to methanol poisoning and they have used my case to help their cases and their

cases have been even more astonishing because someone's died from it. And the amount of justice they've been able to receive is so little and it's been so dangerous for them to fight back against methanol poisoning in Bali. A lot of these bars are owned by, you know, gangs and it's a dangerous thing for people to speak out about this. And, you know, after it happened to me, it was still happening to more people. And so I feel like this play and this podcast for me has been a little bit of my justice that I've been able to reclaim. So people are actually aware because I think so many people who hear about methanol poisoning, they do think like you were saying, oh, it's probably somebody being down in a bar.

It's probably someone drinking from some little hut on the beach, it was probably dodgy, they were just, they were taking a risk, obviously, but that's not the case. I was gonna ask you just finally how you look back on that time, but I'm actually more interested in how you are now. I look back on that time, I used to look back on that time with a lot of like, fondness and what my life could have been. But now, where I am, as cliché as it is, I've kind of gotten back to exactly where I wanted to be 13 years ago.

I just did it in a really strange detour of a way, you know? I always wanted to be an actor and a performer and I gave that up when I lost my eyesight because I didn't think it was something I could do and pursued other careers in university. And then I said, no, I'm actually going to give it a try. And I went back to school for theater and acting and I'm doing all the things that I wanted to do. And at 32 now, I am in a place where I can say I am happy and I'm doing the things that I've always wanted to do despite my eyesight. I'm really glad to hear that. This is a hell of a story and I'm really glad to talk to

you about it. Thank you very much. Thanks so much. Ashley King is the host of STATIC, a party girl's memoir. It's produced with Meg Wilcox, head of the Community Podcast Initiative at Mount Royal University in Calgary.