A guest who fell ill after drinking tainted cocktails at a five-star resort in Fiji was offered $160 compensation and asked to sign a compensation agreement, her friend claims.
Four Australians, a Fijian and an American were rushed to hospital on Saturday after drinking in Warwick Fiji, on the Coral Coast resort island, and suffered symptoms including nausea and vomiting.
Four of the victims have since been discharged, including a mother and daughter from Sydney who returned home on Monday night.
A second Australian mother and a Fijian woman, aged 22, remain in a stable condition in Lautoka hospital.
The Fijian woman was on holiday with friends at the Warwick resort when she began having seizures and foaming at the mouth after consuming pina coladas at the pool bar.
She was also taken to Lautoka Hospital in a critical condition, where she remains under care in a stable condition.
A friend who accompanied her on the trip said he was dismayed by the lack of attention given to her by resort staff when the emergency unfolded.
He said the resort also did everything it could to try to absolve it of any responsibility for what happened.
Four Australians, a Fijian and an American were rushed to hospital on Saturday after drinking in Warwick Fiji, on the resort island’s Coral Coast, and suffered symptoms including nausea and vomiting (pictured: a staff member , who had no connection to the incident, holds bottles of spirits while tidying up the bar at the Warwick Resort in Fiji on Monday)
Five of the victims have since been discharged, including a mother and daughter from Sydney who returned home on Monday night (pictured: tourists could be seen enjoying drinks at the pool bar on Monday).
“They made my friend sign a compensation form and provided him with a small refund of about $160,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“I was not happy about this… They did not say if they would reach out to the victims and provide them with help.”
The friend said the group had been drinking at the bar shortly after noon on Saturday before returning to their rooms.
At 5 p.m., he and the others went to see their 22-year-old friend to get her up and ready for dinner, only to discover that she was seriously ill.
He said they immediately called the front desk staff, but they “took their time” and “didn’t act like anything was out of place.”
When they went to the reception area, the group saw that several other guests were unwell.
The friend said the resort staff were not helpful, so he called a doctor friend who advised him to take her somewhere immediately to stabilize her.
“There were no medical personnel in the complex,” he said.
One of the poolside bars at the Warwick resort, which has been in business for 40 years.
‘We had to take her in our rental car to a small clinic in Sigatoka to stabilize her before taking her to Sigatoka Hospital.
‘There were no nurses or adequate medical equipment there either. There, they got her breathing properly and checked her adjustments and then took her to Lautoka.
“They had to do CPR on the way.”
The friend said his ordeal had turned his “perfect weekend” into a “living nightmare”.
“Not even at the hospital did anyone from management call us to talk to us,” he said.
The victim’s parents traveled to be by his side in hospital, while his friends returned to Suva.
Georgia Sandoe-Simpson, 19, and her mother Tanya Sandoe, 56, are pictured returning to Sydney on Monday.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the resort for comment.
Among those affected by the suspected alcohol poisoning were Tanya Sandoe, 56, and her daughter Georgia Sandoe-Simpson, 19, from Sydney’s Upper North Shore.
Georgia suffered a seizure after drinking the cocktail and was the sicker of the couple.
Ms Sandoe and her daughter seemed happy to be back home as they checked their own luggage out of Sydney Airport shortly after 7pm on Monday night.
The mother and daughter beamed as they joined Ms Sandoe’s parents, David and Pamela, and another male family member at a side exit, escorted by Australian Federal Police officers and out of sight of the most of the media expected.
The Fiji incident comes after six tourists, including two Australians, died after drinking drinks laced with methanol at a two-star hostel in Laos in November.
While Fijian authorities are yet to determine whether the latest incident is due to methanol poisoning, they have renewed calls for Australians to be careful when drinking abroad.
Dean Long, chief executive of the Australian Travel Industry Association (ATIA), told Daily Mail Australia that methanol poisonings were rare but could occur anywhere in the world.
‘These events happen. “They happen in Australia, they happen all over the world, so they’re not destination specific,” he said.
More than 400,000 Australians traveled to Fiji last year, a holiday spot considered a “safe destination” for tourists.