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Chiang Mai: Unexplained myocarditis - 7 deaths - pesticide poisoning suspected

kiwibird

kiwibird

Editor, Senior Moderator
....
Sarah Carter, 23, of Wellington, was on a three-week holiday with two close friends when they became ill after eating food from a market.

Carter died on Waitangi Day, February 6; her friend Amanda Eliason, 24, is still recovering from emergency heart surgery, and Emma Langlands, 23, is also being treated in Chiang Mai Ram Hospital.

...
At this stage, Sarah's death is thought to be from myocarditis inflammation of the heart from viral, bacterial or fungal infections.

Despite news that Thai officials have sent an epidemiology team to Chiang Mai to carry out an investigation into Sarah's death, her parents say they are not focused on how she died but rather paying tribute to her life.

The couple say they will not be asking for any toxicology requests as they know all three girls "received wonderful care at the Chiang Mai Ram Hospital".
...

belinda.mccammon@star-times.co.nz

- Sunday Star Times
Full story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/news/4650912/Anguished-mums-shock-at-death
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

I hope that Sarah Carter's memory lives on forever and her family is consoled knowing that she was so brave and lived her dreams and was so very kind and a truly gentle lady. This is so tragic for her to depart this world early and way too soon. Her two friends Amanda and Emma were lucky to know her and be her good friends and travel with her.
Myocarditis from 'viral, bacterial or fungal' source, sure sounds like food poisoning.
Thank you Kiwibird for this updated information. :tiphat:
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Thank you Kiwibird and JC
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

....
It was reported Sarah Carter, 23, died in Thailand seven days ago after eating a seaweed dish at a food market in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

However, health officials are doubtful it was this dish that was responsible.

Carter's friend Amanda Eliason, 24, is recovering from emergency heart surgery and Emma Langlands is also being treated in Chiang Mai Ram Hospital, though she did not eat the seaweed dish.
....

Her death could as easily have been caused by "some other infection" rather than toxic seaweed, even an illness such as influenza, Dr Pasakorn said. The team of doctors was reporting back to him and he hoped to have a report ready by Tuesday.....

Full story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-news/news/4650963/Thais-doubt-seaweed-killed-Sarah-Carter

JC - I couldn't agree more - what a great pity. Her family and friends will be devastated. I hope her friends make a speedy recovery. Just so sad.
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

While myocarditis can be an occasional rare complication of influenza (or of adenovirus, enterovirus, and many other common pathogens), the fact that a friend of the deceased also needed heart surgery means that 2 of the 3 cases had myocarditis, and suggests that something else attacked their hearts.

I wonder if the three of them could have picked up some rare parasite that attacks the heart. A toxic poisoning, perhaps not even necessarily food-borne, might also be under investigation. The timing below does suggest a simultaneous exposure, rather than contagion.
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/food-poisoning-victim-not-sure-killed-her-friend-4020177

Food poisoning victim not sure what killed her friend
Published: 7:35AM Thursday February 10, 2011 Source: NZPA

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Sarah Carter - Source: Facebook
Related
Toxic food kills young Kiwi in Thailand watch
Woman's death not from toxic seaweed says family watch
The funeral for a New Zealand woman who died from food poisoning while holidaying in Thailand will be held on Valentine's Day.

It was initially thought that toxic seaweed cost 23-year-old Sarah Carter her life and made her two travelling companions Amanda Eliason, 24, and Emma Langlands, 23, violently ill.

But Eliason said from her hospital bed in the Thaliand city of Chiang Mai that she did not know what it was that killed her friend and left her own life hanging in the balance.

She said that doctors had taken samples but were still unsure of the cause of their illness.

She told the Taranaki Daily News that all three had eaten dinner at a food market late last week and began vomiting early the next morning.

"By 10.30am we called hotel reception and they said they would arrange for a doctor to come and see us."

She said the vomiting stopped for four hours but by late afternoon they were all ill again.

"After getting back in touch with the doctor we were told to go to hospital and by 1am on Friday morning we were all in hospital," she said.

Eliason eventually needed heart surgery to assist her recovery but doctors lost the battle to save Carter.

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Eliason's grandmother Val told ONE News Amanda is going well, and both her and Langlands are now in the general ward together.

Eliason will be assessed by a cardiologist tomorrow to see if she's well enough to spend a few days out of hospital and at a hotel and then determine whether she is well enough to travel home.

Emma Langlands' father Rick told ONE News he is hopeful his daughter will be given clearance to go home today.

Details of Carter's Auckland funeral were released on social networking site Facebook yesterday by a family member.

"All are welcome to attend and celebrate the life of Sarah Carter," the message said.

Carter's mother and brother will bring her body home on Friday and her funeral will be held on Monday in the Auckland suburb of Howick where her mother and father live.

Raised in Auckland, Carter studied chemistry at Victoria University and had been working at Wellington accounting firm BDO Spicers in the past year.

A separate service for her Wellington friends and work colleagues is planned for the capital.

A close family friend, Kay Savill, who had known Carter since she was about 11-years-old, said she was absolutely devastated by the news.

"Sarah was the most delightful girl you could possibly have met. She was really a lovely girl, she was lovely to look at and she was lovely in herself."

"She wasn't a silly girl, she was a clever, studious girl," Savill said.
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Thanks to you too Sally Furniss, kiwibird and Alert. :applause:
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

http://www.3news.co.nz/Kiwi-one-of-4-mystery-deaths-at-Thai-hotel/tabid/423/articleID/200824/Default.aspx
Kiwi one of 4 mystery deaths at Thai hotel
Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:02a.m.Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:02a.m.

Thai police are investigating the unexplained deaths of three others who stayed in the same Chiang Mai hotel as New Zealand tourist Sarah Carter.

Auckland-born Miss Carter died in mysterious circumstances on February 6, and police now say an elderly British couple and a female Thai tour guide died after staying in the Downtown Inn last month.
Click to expand...
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Four deaths and two near-deadly illnesses within a few days in the same hotel sounds more like a communicable disease than "food poisoning"; however, the simultaneous illness of the three young women is perplexing. If food was the problem, then the three young women would have had to have eaten the same thing that contained the pathogen or toxin. It would have to have been similar with the British couple and they would have died at approximately the same time, otherwise I would expect if one died, the other would call for help.
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

It's rare, but it sounds like legionella can present primarily as a cardio condition.

Myocarditis: a rare complication during Legionella infection
International Journal of Cardiology
Volume 37, Issue 3, December 1992, Pages 418-420

Arrhythmia or myocarditis: a novel clinical form of Legionella pneumophila infection in children without pneumonia.
Eur J Pediatr. 1985 Jul;144(2):157-9.
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Interesting idea. The fact that four deaths were linked to the same hotel, but no illness was reported in any contact who did not go to that hotel seems to indicate some kind of exposure in the hotel, especially with the fact that the Thai woman was in the room next door to the New Zealanders.

I might think that if it were Legionella, there would have been some respiratory symptoms, too, in at least some of the cases. The suddenness of onset and the fact that the Thai woman was in the room next door seem to indicate to me that some type of toxin might have been involved. I wonder if the possiblility of venom, such as spider bites, has been investigated, as there are some known venoms that are cardiotoxic.
 
Thailand: Unexplained myocarditis - 6 cases, 4 deaths

Thailand: Unexplained myocarditis - 6 cases, 4 deaths

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/69896/nz-woman's-death-linked-to-others-at-thai-hotel

NZ woman's death linked to others at Thai hotel
Updated 33 minutes ago

The father of a young Wellington woman who died after falling ill in Thailand says he wants more done by the Thai and New Zealand governments to find out why she died.

Thai police are reported to be investigating four deaths over a three-week period at the same Thai hotel where 23-year-old Sarah Carter and two friends became ill after visiting a food market in Chiang Mai.

Ms Carter subsequently died, while her friends recovered. They have since returned to New Zealand.

The others who died at the hotel were a Thai tour guide and a British couple believed to have been in their 70s.

Police say there is no indication yet that the deaths were linked but say they are investigating. In a media report the acting hotel manager is quoted as saying the deaths were a coincidence. [Sure...we believe that... - alert]

Ms Carter's father, Richard Carter, says he believes it's no coincidence.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says New Zealand's embassy in Thailand has requested the results of tests on Ms Carter and her friends, and the findings into two investigations by the Thai Centre for Disease.



Copyright ? 2011, Radio New Zealand
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

I might think that if it were Legionella, there would have been some respiratory symptoms, too, in at least some of the cases.
Click to expand...

I agree, Alert. This report from 2009 might be the first case of "...a rare manifestation of Legionella pneumophila-induced perimyocarditis (strongly suspected, if not incontrovertibly proved) in an adult, in the absence of pneumonia." So it would seem beyond rare for so many adults, some healthy and young, to have this rare presentation of Legionella in a cluster.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2801935/
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

I noticed a somewhat similar cluster of Thailand hotel mystery deaths and illnesses reported by the Seattle media in 2009.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009193860_thailand08m.html
"With only days before they were to head home, they decided to "splurge" on a room with air conditioning on the island of Koh Phi Phi. That evening, Jill started feeling sick, and they chalked it up to food poisoning. Within a few hours, it was clear she needed to be hospitalized."
Click to expand...
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Viral Myocarditis seems to be more frequent then we know and is the most import cause of sudden deaths of adults below the age of 40.

In the Netherlands every year a few hundred of young adults - no previous heartproblems - die from Myocarditis.

VIRAL MYOCARDITIS could be caused by common virusses like:

Enterovirus
Adenovirus
Parvovirus B19
Humaan herpesvirus 6
Cytomegalovirus
Influenza A
Hepatitis C

Also bacterial infections can trigger Myocarditis.

Presentation in Dutch/English
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Dutchy said:
Viral Myocarditis seems to be more frequent then we know and is the most import cause of sudden deaths of adults below the age of 40.

In the Netherlands every year a few hundred of young adults - no previous heartproblems - die from Myocarditis.

VIRAL MYOCARDITIS could be caused by common virusses like:

Enterovirus
Adenovirus
Parvovirus B19
Humaan herpesvirus 6
Cytomegalovirus
Influenza A
Hepatitis C

Also bacterial infections can trigger Myocarditis.

Presentation in Dutch/English
Click to expand...

What seems to be unusual here. is that all three friends travelling together developed myocarditis. The above agents tend to only cause myocarditis in a tiny fraction of cases, making them less likely suspects.
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Inconsistent reporting: What exactly did the three girls eat? Toxic seaweed? Salmon? Pufferfish? Chicken and Pork? All of the above have been mentioned in this thread, and at most one can be true.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/loc...onnected-to-four-deaths-gets-police-all-clear

Chiang mai hotel connected to four deaths gets police all clear
Published: 6/03/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

Police have ruled out foul play after four people staying at a Chiang Mai hotel died over a 16-day period.

Two foreign tourists and a Thai tour guide were all found dead in the Downtown Inn hotel in Chiang Mai's Muang district last month. A third foreigner staying at the hotel later died in hospital.

Despite some coincidences and similarities in the deaths, police do not believe any of the victims were murdered.

The first death was that of Thai tour guide Waraporn Yingmahasaranont, 47, whose body was found in front of the bathroom inside her fifth-floor room on Feb 3. Police said she had suffered from diarrhoea before her death.

On Feb 18, New Zealand tourist Sarah Carter, 23, was killed by an apparent bout of food poisoning.

Hotel staff interviewed by police said Carter and two foreign friends, who had also checked in to a room on the fifth floor, had brought barbecued pork and chicken back to the hotel that night and later became violently ill.

The staff took them to a local hospital, where Carter died. The two friends recovered and have since left Thailand.

Pol Lt Col Sawat Lakas, deputy chief of Muang district police in Chiang Mai, said investigators were still waiting for results of the post-mortem examination on Carter and Waraporn.

The next night, an elderly British couple died in their fourth-floor room.

A post-mortem examination confirmed both George Everly, 78, and Elean Everly, 74, died as a result of an unusual enlargement of their heart muscles with blocked arteries, Pol Lt Col Sawat said.

However despite the coincidence, doctors found no trace of poison in their stomachs, nor did police find any evidence of a struggle in the room.

The deputy chief said all three of the guests who died at the hotel had locked their rooms from the inside.

Hotel manager Thanthep Boonkaew has been called for questioning by police.

Mr Thanthep said many bookings at the hotel have been cancelled since news of the deaths had spread.

Monks will perform religious rites at the hotel on Tuesday.
 
Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

Re: 23 Year old dies of myocarditis - 2 friends hospitalised

alert said:
What seems to be unusual here. is that all three friends travelling together developed myocarditis. The above agents tend to only cause myocarditis in a tiny fraction of cases, making them less likely suspects.
Click to expand...

True.
 
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