Woman Suffers Injuries After Drinking 'Jungle Juice'

A nurse was being treated for horrific injuries in an Australian hospital Wednesday, after she was flown home from Indonesia in a coma brought on by drinking a toxic cocktail that has killed at least four foreigners.

Jamie Johnston, 25, of Newcastle, in New South Wales, is struggling to speak, can barely walk and her legs are severely burnt after drinking a cocktail called Jungle Juice at a cafe on the island of Lombok, west of Bali.

"It burnt her from the inside out," said Lyn Tisdell, the mother of Johnston's boyfriend Dennis.
"There needs to be more awareness out there about these drinks. Young people going there for [end of school celebrations], please be careful of what you drink."

The nurse collapsed at Denpasar Airport in Bali two weeks ago suffering renal failure, a day after drinking Jungle Juice with her mom at Happy Cafe on the last night of their vacation. Her mother, a lawyer, was not affected by the drink.

Johnston slipped into a coma and sustained brain scarring because of lack of oxygen. She spent two days at the hospital in Denpasar with no improvement before being medically evacuated to Darwin, in northern Australia, at a cost of $50,000.

Boyfriend of three years Dennis Tisdell, 28, said doctors suspected the drink was laced with the chemical methanol, sometimes used in the local brew arak, a distilled palm wine.

He said they were told Johnston's mother did not get sick because the methanol was in the tops of the jugs of Jungle Juice. Four foreigners were among 25 people killed by a tainted batch of arak in 2009.

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