An American woman living in Bali has warned women to watch their drinks after being slipped what she believes was a monster Rohypnol dose in a bar at the island paradise.
Mara Wolford said she went to the bar for a drink on July 4 with two friends and ordered mojitos.
"I leave the drink on the bar and go to the bathroom," she posted to Facebook.
"All of these acts – ordering mixed drinks, not watching them being made and leaving a drink unattended – are fatal errors in Bali, but this evening, I wasn't too concerned.
"Half-way through the second ... Rohypnol kicked in with fury. I knew what it was because this happened three years ago and it was terrifying. From the speed in which this was happening, it felt like multiple doses."
Panicking, Wolford muttered a warning to three other women nearby and asked them not to let anyone follow her out.
She thought she could make it to her house, 200 metres away, but got about 20 metres before collapsing and falling straight on her face.
"A motorbike passes, circles back around and stops. I can remember no detail about the driver other than he was Caucasian. My face is split open."
"He was trying to clean my face up, and I remember telling him it was fine. I know what is going to happen next and I don't want him to witness it."
She asked him to take her back to her friend's house, and they arrived home from the bar at the same time and the motorcyclist told them what happened.
"I am now nearly paralysed and can barely talk," she said.
"Between projectile vomiting and loss of all bodily function, I nearly go into organ failure. I can feel my body shutting down."
Her friend cleaned her up and put her to bed, she wrote.
"She sleeps next to me because she is really worried. My breathing is superficial and interrupted, a symptom of Rohypnol overdose. She doesn't sleep much that night. She saved my life," Wolford wrote.
"I know it may sound weird that we wouldn't go straight to the hospital, but the hospitals here wouldn't know what to do either, in the case of severe benzodiazepine poisoning, and my stomach and bowels had already been purged."
Woman shares harrowing Rohypnol ordeal in Bali to raise awareness | Stuff.co.nz
