A fashion student, Narinthon Alexander died on her 21st birthday after drinking half a bottle of Jack Daniels and choking on her own vomit in a Thai restaurant. Narinthorn Alexander was found unconscious in the toilet of Thai Tho in Soho, central London, after telling friends she was not feeling well.
She later suffered a cardiac arrest and was in a coma for six days before her life machine support was turned off. An inquest into her death found that none of the staff at the Thai restaurant could perform first aid and the student did not receive any until police officers arrived on the scene. However, coroner Mary Hassell ruled that the amount of Jack Daniels she had consumed played a significant role in her death.
She said: ‘What underlies all of this is alcohol, I’m afraid.’ Miss Alexander, who was born in Thailand, was studying at the University of West London. She turned 21 on March 9 and celebrated her birthday with her boyfriend and six other friends later that week. Friends told the inquest that they saw nothing wrong with the fashion student and that she was enjoying herself.
A close friend said: ‘When the food did arrive she did have a tiny bit to eat. She was starting to feel a bit tipsy. ‘It got to the point where she came over and whispered in my ear and said, ”I’m going to the toilet, I will be right back”. The friend later revealed the moment Miss Alexander was found in the toilet.
She said: ‘She was not responding at all — I had never seen her like that. Her friend was holding her head up… I was shaking her.’
After starting chest compressions paramedics inspected Miss Alexander’s airwaves and found that ‘quite large chunks of chicken’ were causing a ‘significant airways obstruction.’
Narinthorn Alexander’s cause of death was given as a hypoxic brain injury and cardiac arrest, asphyxiation vomitus and alcohol toxicity.
