VietNamNet Bridge – Agencies are investigating the deaths of two foreign female tourists - both in their 20s - who died under abnormal circumstances in the provincial General Hospital after staying in the beachside city of Nha Trang.

At 7:30 pm on July 30, Cathy Huynh, a 26-year-old Canadian citizen who is of Vietnamese origin, took Karin Joy Bowerman, 27, of American nationality, to the Khanh Hoa Province General Hospital.

The two travelers had shared a room at a hotel on Nguyen Thien Thuat Street, in the tourism city of Nha Trang.

When hospitalized, Karin had no injury on her body but suffered from a serious respiratory failure, with her blood pressure dropping to zero.

Karin was put on a respirator and given intensive treatment and care, but she died at 10:30 pm that night.

On the noon of August 1, Cathy suddenly developed a shock, a medical term referring to the organs and tissues of the body not receiving a sufficient flow of blood, and was treated at the same hospital.

Doctors gave her anti-shock therapies and intensive care, but she experienced cardiac arrests during the treatment and died at 2:15 am Thursday.

Doctors have yet to reach a conclusion about the cause of the two deaths, Dr Nguyen Van Xang, deputy director of the hospital, said.

Concerned agencies in Khanh Hoa Province are coordinating with the Consulates of the US and Canada in Ho Chi Minh City to investigate the case.

a source from the Forensic Examination Center under the Khanh Hoa Province Health Department said the center had taken samples from the Karin’s body and sent them to Hanoi for analysis.

The center has yet to take samples from Cathy's body as the investigation agency has not yet requested it to do so.

It is likely that the two women had suffered poisoning, the source said.

At the request of Karin’s family, her body has been brought to Ho Chi Minh City for cremation and her ashes will be sent to her family in US state of Illinois.

This recalls the recent case of two Canadian tourists who died in Thailand.

Nearly two months ago, two Canadian sisters - also in their twenties - were found dead in their hotel room on a popular Thai resort island. The bodies of Audrey and Noemi Belanger, aged 20 and 26, were found on June 15 by hotel staff on Phi Phi island in the Andaman Sea, 800 km south of Bangkok, showings signs of having suffered an extreme toxic reaction.

Forensic officials found vomit in the room, blood on their lips and gums and their fingernails and toenails were blue, lieutenant colonel Rat Somboon of Krabi Provincial Police said, adding there were "signs of serious food poisoning."

Foreign tourists die from wine? Family disagree

A forensic investigator of Khanh Hoa province’s Police Department, who declined to be named, believes that drinking too much wine might have led to the deaths of the two foreign visitors to Nha Trang, who have recently died mysteriously at a local public hospital.

He said he will inform the real cause of their deaths as soon as they have the official results of the autopsy tests but he did not say how long it will take.

Family disagree

However, Huynh Thi Huong, mother of 26-year-old Canadian Cathy Huynh, one of the two deceased victims, insisted that her daughter does not have a habit of drinking alcohol.

“She often drank a little at parties but she never consumed beer or wine during vacations,” Huong said.

The 57-year-old mother arrived at Ho Chi Minh City-based Tan Son Nhat international airport from Canada at around 10:00am on August 4 to complete some necessary formalities to bring her daughter’s body to their home in Canada.

Cathy was born and raised in Canada. Her mother immigrated in Canada in 1980 when she got married with her father Huynh Ngoc Minh, 58.

Cathy often talked online to her biological brother Michael Huynh, 28, when she lived and worked far away home.

“All my family members are extremely saddened by her death,” Michael said.

According to her mother, after graduating in political science from a university in Canada, Cathy worked as an English teacher overseas.

Before her fatal trip to Vietnam, Cathy and her American traveling companion Karin Joy Bowerman, 28, who also died abnormally at the hospital, had taught English at a university in South Korea.

Last year, Cathy made her first trip to Vietnam together with an American friend with Vietnamese origin and they also chose Nha Trang as their destination.

Huong said her daughter is “a person free from disease”, adding that Cathy used to win medals at sports competitions at high school and university.

She even participated in charity fund-raising sports events at the university in South Korea where she taught English for one year, Huong said.

Careless?

2:50pm Sunday, Mr. Tap, an employee at the morgue of the Khanh Hoa General Hospital said that the body of Cathy Huynh was sent there without any clothes on, with just a piece of fabric pulled over.

When he was told that the victim’s family want her to have clothes on, Tap said that the morgue would not supply clothes but he would ask the hospital’s leaders to provide a pair for her or he would buy one himself because “this is humane” as he said.

Cathy Huynh’s family have refused to have an autopsy done on her as they say the two died the same way (Cathy and Karin Joy Bowerman) and one autopsy would be enough.

On August 4, local authorities in coordination with the US Consulate General in Vietnam completed a preliminary autopsy on 27-year-old American tourist Karin Joy Bowerman, who died mysteriously at Khanh Hoa Province General Hospital on July 30. However, no results have been announced.

Karin’s family wanted to have her corpse cremated in Ho Chi Minh City and the ash sent to Illinois, her hometown, a source told Tuoi Tre News on Saturday.

Irresponsibility?

Their deaths are raising questions about how they were treated at the hospital in the last days of their lives.

Huynh Thi Huong, Cathy Huynh’s mother, fainted many times.

“I’m deeply saddened and mournful,” Huong told Tuoi Tre News.

“We would like to bring her body to Canada for funeral because all my family members in Canada want to see her for the last time,” she sobbed.

The 57-year-old mother has blamed doctors and nurses for her daughter’s death.

“I’m really angry at the irresponsibility of the hospital staff. She died because she did not receive proper medical care despite the fact that she had been admitted to the hospital 12 hours before her death,” Huong said.

On August 4 afternoon, Tuoi Tre News tried to contact the hotel where the two deceased tourists stayed during their vacation in Nha Trang but the hotel staff declined to cooperate, saying that they already told investigators.

The hotel staff also prevented Tuoi Tre News from taking pictures.

A website has been set up to try to raise $40,000 to bring Cathy’s body back to Canada and pay for a funeral, and more than $13,500 has been collected as of 9am Monday (Vietnam time).

VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre