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  • 5/24/2025
In December last year, seven tourists including four Australians were hospitalised with suspected alcohol poisoning after drinking pina coladas at a popular Fiji resort. The incident made global headlines and came less than a month after the deaths of Melbourne teenagers Holly Bowles and Bianca jones from methanol poisoning in Laos. At the time, Fijian authorities said no methanol was found in the drinks. Now, in an exclusive interview with the ABC one of the victims is speaking out describing how she fell into a coma and almost died, after taking just two sips of the drink.

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00:00And to get more on this, we're joined by the ABC's Fiji reporter, Leithae Mavona.
00:07Leithae, welcome to the program.
00:08You spoke to Susan, who I understand asked for identity to be withheld to protect her
00:13daughter, who was in Fiji with her, and is clearly quite traumatised by it all.
00:18Can you tell us why she's speaking up?
00:24Dan, thank you for having me.
00:25She reached out to us after she heard an interview between Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rombuka
00:31and myself, in which I put to the Prime Minister that maybe Fijian authorities had withheld
00:37or, at the very least, downplayed the seriousness of the incident which occurred on the weekend
00:42of 16th to the 18th of December last year.
00:45She heard that on Pacific Beat and reached out to us because she said all she needs is
00:50answers, and she didn't think in the last four to five months or so that anyone else was
00:55searching for those answers.
00:56That's how we were able to get to her in northern New South Wales and to hear her story.
01:01And in terms of those answers, what have the Fijian authorities had to say?
01:07Dan, it's been really difficult, near impossible, actually, to get the Fijian authorities to speak
01:13to me.
01:13I asked for the opportunity to put these allegations to them, but all I've been able to get was
01:19a statement from the Deputy Prime Minister, who's also the Minister for Tourism, to say
01:23that the government of Fiji deeply regrets the incident and that it would continue to work
01:28with the Australian High Commission here to update the four Australian nationals about
01:33what had happened and to offer support if they could.
01:36But they did not respond specifically to any of the allegations given to them.
01:40However, I'm happy to say that today, less than an hour from now, actually, the Fijian
01:44Prime Minister is happy to hear from us as to what the evidence says about whether or
01:49not the testing that Fijian authorities said they would do on the patients and on the drinks
01:55actually was conducted.
01:57Yeah, many questions there, Leitha.
01:58It'll be good to hear what the authorities and the Prime Minister have to say.
02:02What about the Warwick Resort, where Susan and her daughter were actually staying?
02:06Initially, in December, they were happy to talk to us, took us through what happened that
02:12day, according to, you know, their records, showed us the bar and the ingredients of this
02:17particular pina colada.
02:18But when these allegations came through after we'd actually spoken with Suzanne, they initially
02:23said they would talk to me and then they didn't.
02:25And yesterday, physically had me removed from a public road outside of the resort premises.
02:31So no luck hearing from them as to whether or not they have some answers for Suzanne and
02:37the other six people who got sick at the Warwick Resort in December.
02:41Wow, that is an extraordinary response.
02:45Leitha, what happens now?
02:49Well, what we're hoping happens is that we'll have this opportunity to present the Prime Minister
02:53some evidence that, at the very least, promises made by Fijian authorities in December and in
02:58January of this year, that they would look into independent scientific testing of the patients
03:04as well as the drinks themselves.
03:06We're going to present that evidence to him and hope that maybe there will be fresh investigations
03:11and that these people who got sick in Fiji in December might have some answers as to what
03:16happened to them that day.

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