Mysterious tourist deaths from unknown causes

[KoratCat]

Seattle woman dies from unknown causes in Thailand

BANGKOK -- Two young women tourists, one from Seattle and the other from Norway, have died after suddenly falling ill within hours of each other this past weekend at the same guest house in southern Thailand.

Thai police said Thursday they did not know the cause of death of the two, who were staying on Koh Phi Phi, a popular island destination for budget travelers. Theories include food or alcohol poisoning and toxic fumes in their bungalows, but nothing has been proved.

The mysterious deaths, especially if not soon explained, could deal another blow to Thailand's tourism industry, which has been battered by the world economic downturn and domestic political unrest that saw Bangkok's two airports closed down by demonstrators for a week last year and rioting in the Thai capital.

The American victim has been identified by her family as Jill St. Onge, 27, a bartender and artist from Seattle. She died on Sunday.

Norwegian media and the Web newspaper Andaman Times , which covers southern Thailand, identified the Norwegian woman as Julie Michelle Bergheim, 22. She died Monday.

Both had been staying at the Laleena guesthouse. Another 19-year-old Norwegian woman staying with Bergheim also fell ill with the same symptoms, but survived.

"One of them was vomiting so the guesthouse owners and one of their friends rushed her to the hospital on Phi Phi," said police Capt. Pantanan Santhong. "Another one later had the same symptoms. They died at the hospital. Doctors said it was due to dehydration and shock."

"Right now, we do not have any further information on what happened and how it happened," he said. We are investigating."

The bodies of both victims have been taken to Bangkok for autopsies but no results were available.

A number of theories have been floated about what could have caused the deaths. They include poisoning from food or alcohol and energy drinks, tainted water, cyanide poisoning from an unknown source, carbon monoxide poisoning and toxic fumes sucked in through the air conditioning - both victims were staying in air-conditioned rooms.

"I'm sorry about the lady tourists. but it is not my fault," Asan Buntam, the guest house owner, told The Associated Press by phone. "It was the same thing, their stomachs hurt and they were throwing up. ... I think it was because everyone went out drinking and partying."

The guest house is a 10-room backpacker hotel on the island where air-conditioned rooms like the ones both tourists stayed in cost about 600 baht ($17) a night.

St. Onge had been on a three-month tour of Southeast Asia with her fiancé Ryan Kells, according to a blog established in her memory by her family.

It cited his account of her death.

"From what we understand (and this most likely will be refined as more information becomes available) Jill had a mild case of food sickness. Pretty typical in Thailand and no cause for real concern as it happened a few times before. Jill went to her room to rest for a spell. Ryan stayed out to get lunch and check the Internet.

"When he returned a couple hours later he found Jill in pretty bad shape. Jill said she needed to go to the hospital. She was so weak he carried her until he found a cart. Ryan was screaming in the streets for help as she was deteriorating fast. They got help from a great guy named Per. He helped Ryan get Jill to the clinic. Unfortunately by the time she arrived she had stopped breathing. They worked on her for around 45 min but to no avail. It happened very fast."

Fewer details were available about Bergheim, who Norwegian media identified as coming from Drammen, near Oslo.

"I don't know if it was something she ate or if it was because she went out to party," guest house owner Asan said. "She came back at night and the next morning, the cleaning staff knocked on her door to clean. They saw her throwing up and my brother took her to the hospital."

Seattlepi.com May 7, 2009

[KoratCat]

Mystery illness kills 2 foreign tourists

KRABI - Two foreign tourists have died mysteriously and two others are seriously ill from unknown causes after holidaying on Phi Phi Island, the Phuket Gazette reported on its website on Thursday.

The report speculation surrounds the circumstances of the deaths and the authorities had yet to make any official statements.

Press Attache at the US embassy in Bangkok, Michael Turner, told the Gazette that US citizen Jill St. Onge, 26, died on May 2, shortly after being taken to hospital by her boyfriend Ryan Kells, who also fell ill.

Both tourists were vomiting severely before Miss St. Onge’s admission to hospital, the Gazette report said.

Her family have set up a blog website to publicise the story. Writing on that site, Mr Kells said he suspected the air conditioning in their hotel room was responsible for making them ill and believes he survived because he had spent less time in the room than Miss St. Onge.

The same room was rented to two Norwegian women the following day. Both developed the same symptoms.

The Norwegian Ambassador to Thailand, Merete Brattested, confirmed that Julie Michelle Bergheim, 22, died on May 4 in Bangkok Hospital Phuket, the Gazette reported. Her friend was recovering at Bangkok Phuket Hospital.

Koh Phi Phi hospital director Dr Buncha Khakong said the cause of both deaths was being investigated by the Department of Disease Control in Bangkok.

“I guessed something they consumed caused them to die but I cannot say clearly until we receive the lab results,” he said.

Bangkok Post May 7, 2009

[KoratCat]

German, 57, dies in Phuket after severe vomiting

PATONG, PHUKET: A 57-year-old German national died on the way to a Phuket hospital in the early hours of May 12 with symptoms similar to those of two tourists who recently died on Phi Phi Island in Krabi.

The deceased, later identified as Ernst Hermannweid, had been staying at the Sky Inn Hotel in Patong.

Mr Hermannweid had gone for a few drinks at a bar in Patong when he complained of feeling unwell.

He returned to his hotel, where he started vomiting violently.

He was taken by a female companion to Patong Hospital, where he was reported as dead on arrival.

Extensive efforts to resuscitate him failed.

The nurse on duty at the time told the Gazette, “We tried to help him but he had passed away before he arrived at the hospital and the body was already turning blue.”

“We are now waiting for his relatives in Germany to confirm whether they would like us to perform an autopsy,” she added.

A source at the hospital said the course of Mr Hermannweid’s rapid demise was consistent with infection by the Eltor-Okawa cholera bacterium that also causes severe diarrhea. However, the source warned that it was impossible to know for sure without a full autopsy.

Mr Hermanweid was employed as a project manager by the M+W Zander consulting company, working in Malaysia and Singapore.

The company has sent a representative to Phuket and they are still waiting for a report.

The German Embassy is now working to contact Mr Hermannweid's family back in Germany.

Phuket Gazette May 15, 2009

[KoratCat]

Did West Seattle woman die of food poisoning in Thailand?

The death of a 27-year-old Seattle woman in Thailand earlier this month may have been food poisoning, according to the Phuket Gazette Web site in Thailand.

Preliminary lab tests show that Jill St. Onge of West Seattle and Julie Bergheim, 22, of Norway, had signs of microbial infection in blood samples taken from the two women, Krabi Provincial Police Commander Maj. Gen Pasin Noksakul told the Gazette.

Gen Pasin said that the results from the Forensics Institute were preliminary and not yet official, but it's possible the two women ate contaminated seafood.

The two women, who stayed in adjacent rooms at the Laleena guesthouse on Phi Phi Don Island at the beginning of May, died within hours of each other at Phi Phi Island Hospital after severe vomiting.

In blood samples taken from Bergheim, researchers found three different kinds of potentially harmful microbes, while blood samples from Onge had one, Gen Pasin said.

Although it is not normal procedure to release results until they are official, Gen Pasin said he wanted to quell widespread speculation over the cause of the deaths on Internet blog and chat forums.

Such theories have included exposure to toxic gas from a nearby wastewater treatment plant, problems with the air conditioning in the guest rooms, accidental overdoses of the 4 X 100 drug cocktail that has been gaining popularity in the south over the past year and even murder by poisoning.

The Forensics Institute is continuing to study the microbes to positively identify them and test their virility, according to the Gazette.

"I don't know when the official results will be released, but the commander of the Royal Thai Police has ordered the lab work expedited because the embassies of the two deceased tourists want to know the cause of the death as soon as possible," he told the Gazette.

Gen Pasin ruled out the possibility that [methane] gas emanating from the nearby wastewater treatment plant might have been the cause, saying the plant had been in the area for a long time with no ill effects on local people or tourists.

As you can imagine, Onge's family wants answers. Family members spread the word about Jill's death via Facebook, where she had hundreds of friends.

When Onge and her fiancé, Ryan Kells, took off three months ago for a tour of Southeast Asia, her family was worried. But the couple wanted an adventure. Jill taught art through Seattle Parks and Recreation, and was trying to start her own silk-screening business. She also tended bar at Shadowland in West Seattle. Kells is a glassblower.

With only days before they were to head home, they decided to "splurge" on a room with air conditioning on the island of Koh Phi Phi. That evening, Jill started feeling sick, and they chalked it up to food poisoning. Within a few hours, it was clear she needed to be hospitalized.

Seattle Times May 27, 2009

The most likely explanation in my opinion. Residents might be already immune against those microbes in the fish from the area while tourists who were never exposed to them before get "hit" fully.

[KoratCat]

Thailand tourist's lung tissue 'gone' after mysterious death

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- A pathologist hired by the family of one of two women whose mysterious deaths in Thailand drew worldwide attention says her "lungs were 100 percent congested," Jill St. Onge's fiancee and brother said.

"He said her lung tissue was gone," said her brother, Robert St. Onge.

The pathologist has not determined what caused her lungs to fail, he said, and a final report on her May 2 death may still be weeks away.

But members of St. Onge's family said they feel the pathologist's findings, though preliminary, are enough to contradict public statements made by Thai investigators that St. Onge was the victim of food poisoning.

"I am 99.9 percent sure she did not die of food poisoning," said Ryan Kells, St. Onge's fiancee, who was with her when she died. "She suffocated to death. I am not a doctor, but I know when someone can't breath."

Kells and St. Onge, both artists from Seattle, were on a three-month vacation through Southeast Asia when they arrived on Thailand's Phi Phi Island.

They had gotten engaged while on the trip and were keeping friends and family up to date with their adventures.

"Having a blast," Jill St. Onge, 27, wrote about the surroundings in a blog dedicated to the couple's travels. "Food, drink, sun and warm waters ... what else do ya need?"

The couple's vacation ended tragically when Kells found his fiancee in their hotel room vomiting and unable to breath. He rushed her to a hospital where she died.

St. Onge was healthy and there was no obvious explanation for her sudden death, her brother said.

Just hours after St. Onge fell ill, Julie Bergheim, a Norwegian tourist who was staying in a room next to St. Onge's at the Laleena Guesthouse, came down with similar symptoms. She also died.

According to Thai media reports, police there are focusing on food poisoning as the cause of the women's deaths. Monday the Phuket Gazette quoted a police commander as saying blood samples from both women indicated possible food poisoning from seafood.

Still, the commander said, those results were only preliminary. "I don't know when the official results will be released," Maj. Gen. Pasin Nokasul told the newspaper. "The lab work [is being] expedited because the embassies of the two tourists want to know the cause of death as soon as possible."

Kells response to Nokasul's statement was harsh.

"That she died of food poisoning is a ridiculous statement to make," he said, adding it is unlikely they would have been "the only ones affected."

Dr. William Hurley, medical director for the Washington Poison Center, is also skeptical that food poisoning could have been responsible. In food poisoning cases, he said, "usually what kills you is the dehydration, not the toxin."

He added, "Food poisoning is not something that typically kills someone this quickly. It takes days."

Ingestion of a variety of chemicals could have caused Onge and Bergheim's sudden deaths, Hurley said, and could be consistent with the condition of Onge's lungs. But without further information, he said, it is impossible to say what killed the two women.

Kells said he thinks something in the hotel where they were where staying made Jill sick. He remembers a "chemical smell" in the room and thinks he avoided becoming ill because he spent less time in the room.

On Saturday, the Phuket Wan newspaper reported that investigators that visited the Laleena Guesthouse, taking samples and removing filters from the air conditioning units in the rooms where both victims had stayed.

Rat Chuped, the owner of the hotel, told the newspaper her property was not to blame. "There is no problem with my guesthouse," she said.

CNN May 30, 2009