A 25-year-old nurse from Newcastle has suffered brain damage and kidney failure after drinking a contaminated cocktail in Lombok, Indonesia.
Jamie Johnston has spent the past three weeks in intensive care in Bali and Darwin after ordering a jug of arak, a rice wine drink mixed with fruit juice, on her final night on holiday.
The batch was contaminated with methanol, a toxic chemical often used as an anti-freeze or in paint which has been linked to the deaths of four foreign tourists in 2009.
Ms Johnston's mother Lyn, who was with her daughter, told Fairfax Media test results had shown her daughter suffered methanol toxicity after consuming the drink on September 20 at the Happy Cafe restaurant in Lombok.
She was taken off the plane at Denpasar airport in unbearable pain and then became unconscious.
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"We were on our way home when she collapsed. It was a dreadful end," Mrs Johnston told Fairfax.
"It has all been unbelievably traumatic and horrible. People need to be warned about this. Potentially she could have been killed. We could have both been killed."
The ordeal has left Ms Johnston with brain scarring and renal failure and she has been unable to move or talk properly since.
Mrs Johnston spent more than $45,000 having her daughter flown from Bali to Darwin because she didn't have travel insurance.
Dennis Tisdell, Ms Johnston's 28-year-old boyfriend of three years, told News Ltd doctors suspected the drink was laced with methanol.
He added Ms Johnston's mother did not get sick because the methanol was in the top of the jug of Jungle Juice.
Mr Tisdell made a mercy dash to Bali to be with his sick girlfriend.
