NZer dies of suspected food poisoning in Thailand - National - NZ Herald News

A Kiwi friend of mine has alerted me to this article in today's edition of The New Zealand Herald

As I have said for many years on this site, be very careful what you eat and where you eat in Thailand. The consequences of not doing so can be deadly.

There are many unanswered questions i this case. It is interesting to note that one of the afflicted ate something entirely different. Waiting for the actual results from the investigation.

We were in Chiang Mai the week before eating loads of street food, so this came as a bit of a shock.

We did follow the normal rules of only eating from stalls with high turn over especially to locals.

Sympathies to her family, I hope they get to the bottom of what killed her.

Sadly, it now thought that the young woman and her two travelling companions ordered and ate pork and chicken.

Originally it was reported that they had eaten toxic seaweed, which I thought very strange given how far Chiang Mai is from the sea.

It now appears, after an initial investigation by the NZ embassy, that was not so.

Additionally, and inexplicably (maybe not so?), the Thai authorities have refused to cooperate with the NZ embassy investigation.

It has been reported on another site, that Thailand will not accept the results of a post mortem carried out in NZ! It has stated it was toxic seaweed that was cause of the death.

I have eaten on many occasions at the Anusarn Night Market over the past 34 years and have yet to come across "seaweed" as a dish.

The young woman's funeral was held in Auckland yesterday. Her travelling companions are still in hospital in CM.

The girl's funeral (burial?) has been and gone - Monday. I don't know if NZ authorities even did a autopsy. One would think that if they had, facts would surface to end speculation.

In the States, this would have been mandatory. Untimely death is always investigated, unless there is a history and recent medical intervention.

As far as refusing to cooperate goes, Thai officials don't like to be second guessed.

We have no idea what the embassy's "investigation" involved. All I've seen is very limited press and lots of theorizing based on it.

Anybody have any links to any facts?

This doesn't sound all that fishy to me at a quick glance at several of the news articles describing the woman's unfortunate death. Food poisoning is extremely common and varies in severity based on the bacteria involved (most likely staphylococcus aureus) and the amount ingested. While some regions of the world have higher incidents you will find a direct correlation with sanitary standards. Chiang Mai is a bit rural in comparison with most major cities while I think that most of the food there is quite good I'm sure the public health codes are not nearly as tight as what you would see in a more modern metropolis. Which makes the likelihood of suffering from food poisoning higher based on what you choose to eat. And the fact that it was fatal, while tragic, is not really unheard of either. Usually with the appropriate and timely application of medical care people do fine but not everyone. Some people react much worse with typical infections and sometimes doses of the pathogen are unusually higher. The Thai medical system is on average pretty good based on my limited understanding. Some of the international hospitals more known for "medical tourists" are ranked much higher than many in the western systems. In rural areas, not so much which makes for a sort of patch-work variety in care and available meds depending on where you are. Frankly, I have no idea what the standards are in Chiang Mai so I couldn't speculate on whether her care was appropriate or not.

As for the post-mortem results, never trust the info you read in the news about what is said. News agencies notoriously rely on speculation, unreliable sources, and in some cases just "fill-in-the blanks to finish the story" methods to meet their deadlines. And in some cases, they are simply mistaken. I doubt that the full details of the interaction are known to anyone but the people directly involved. But I can say with experience in medicine is science and medicine are commonly engaged in by people who are not crazy about being second guessed despite the fact that the fundamental nature of their field relies on sharing data. They just are not that great about it, they are human afterall and subject to flaws like everyone. I'm a physician now but I used to work in a coroner's facility and in the US the decision for or against performing an autopsy on "untimely death" is made my the district coroner. If they have reviewed the case and feel that an autopsy is un-necessary to make the diagnosis it usually isn't done unless the family really wants it and is prepared to pay for it. Post-mortem exams are an extremely valuable tool for the advancement of medical knowledge and in some cases for a complete diagnosis in individual cases but practically, they cannot be performed on everyone who dies from ailments like this. There just aren't the resources in any community I have seen to accomplish it. Given that it was an international case, I would have thought that the pressure may have been higher, but then again maybe the family declined or the explaination from the coroner was sufficient to satisfy the authorities at the time. As for this being a case of the Thai government against the NZ government, this is rarely the case. It may have been more like the Chaing Mai coroner refusing the NZ health dept, sure, that's possible if he/she feels it to be unfounded he/she has a duty to do what is felt to be right for the patient first and family second, the law third, and on down the line. Usually the decision is pretty easy and most parties agree, but there are some very tough cases for docs to make a call on based on the circumstances. And since the world of medicine is not completely unified (at least yet) one medical office does not have any need to bend to the will of another's, whether they are doing something stupid or not. Nor do any two medical offices typically agree on the details. So if it was a coroner in Chiang Mai being ordered by a health dept physician in NZ to do the autopsy, or that the results needed to be repeated it turns into a small "pissing match" between two equally credentialed medical personell. And these are so common it's more likely to happen than not happen. So to me this whole story seems rather blown out of proportion by media agencies when in actuality I can't find anything strange about it.

Unfortunately the story is greater than this. The Thai media has failed to report the death of an American traveler in Chiang Mai on 1/11/11. She died as a result of food poisoning. Symptoms very similar to Kiwi Katherine Carter. Seems officials are not connecting the dots and that food safety is not being properly addressed. BE CAREFUL!

Not true. The Thai media have reported her death, but there is no suspicion of food poisoning afaik. She was staying at the same accommodation as the 2 kiwi's.

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Diving Phuket and Similans

Getting a bit more interesting ...

Even more interesting when you include the recent deaths(February the 22nd) of a elderly couple at the same hotel.

British couple found dead during holiday in Thailand | Mail Online

For your information, the name of the hotel is the Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai.