Mum's holiday medication warning after Brit daughter and pal die in Cambodia hostel after taking tummy bug pills
THE MOTHER of a young British backpacker has warned others about taking over-the-counter drugs after she says her sick and unconscious daughter was taken back to a hostel 'to die'.
Natalie Seymour, 22, and her Canadian friend were found dead in a Cambodian hostel after taking medicine for a stomach upset, an inquest heard yesterday.
Before she died, Natalie had messaged her mum back in the UK to say she wasn’t feeling well was going to buy something to make her feel better.
But hours later staff at the hostel in the Cambodian city of Kampot found her and 27-year-old friend Abbey Gail Amisola both dead.
Her mother says she was shocked to learn that her daughter had been taken to see a local doctor while unconscious during yesterday's inquest.
But that she had also been returned to the hostel despite being in obvious need of medical attention.
A local villager took her in a car to the doctor but by the time she arrived she was unconscious and was brought back to the hostel.
Mum Wendy Bowler told the Sun Online: "What I find odd is why wasn’t she taken to hospital.
"It came out in the inquest that when she was taken to a local doctor she was unconscious when she got there.
"Surely someone should have realised she needed to get to the hospital, instead she was brought back to the hostel to die."
Her devastated mother also warned other backpackers about the dangers of taking over-the-counter medication.
She said: "All I would say is to be very careful when buying over the counter medication.
"I’ve been told that out in Cambodia and places like that many of the drugs and medication on sale are made in China and are not regulated like they are back here.
"I’ve been contacted by backpackers who have told me that often the medication contains opioids.
"Whenever they are buying medication over the counter they should check what the ingredients in it are.
"If that means asking the pharmacist then that’s what they should do."
DEAD WITHIN HOURS
An inquest into Natalie’s November 2017 death was told she and her friend were taken ill with severe sickness and diarrhoea soon after checking in.
After her death her phone was examined by the Cambodian authorities and it was found in the hours leading up to her death she had been carrying out Google searches about vomiting.
One entry found said “vomiting so much I have chest pains” while another read “my belly is cramping, but I don’t feel sick".
She was also concerned too about the yellow and dark green colour of what she was bringing up.
Natalie, from Shefford, Bedfordshire, had flown to Cambodia to meet up with Abbey who she had met a year earlier in Bali.
She had developed a thirst for adventure and travel, quit her job as an accounts manager and bought a one-way ticket without knowing when she would be returning home.
She messaged her family daily, telling than where she was going and what she’d be doing.
After arriving in the southwestern city of Kampot, the women booked into the Monkey Republic Guesthouse.
After they took ill, other backpackers brought them food and drink as their conditions deteriorated.
The inquest was told because of the remote location of the hostel there was no hospital nearby.
A local villager took her in a car to a doctor but by the time she arrived she was unconscious and was brought back to the hostel.
Hours later Natalie – who had been in the country for just six days – and her friend Abbey were dead.
Natalie’s body was brought back to the UK where Hertfordshire found no evidence of “ foul play”.
An inquest into her death in 2018 was unable to determine the cause of her death.
But Dr Rajiv Swamy who carried out the post mortem on Natalie there was evidence of liver damage that was sometimes caused by taking medication like paracetamol or anti-convulsants.
He said the condition called “idiopathic hepatotoxic micro vesicular steatosis” was the cause of death.
The coroner recorded an open verdict.
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