Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2001
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Patricia Bailey
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

YOUNG MOTHER DIED FROM 'BAD' ECSTASY

24-year-old Regina Woman Died While On Vacation In Vancouver

The 24-year-old woman who died after taking what B.C.'s chief coroner has 
confirmed was "bad" ecstasy at a Vancouver rave last month lived in Regina 
and is the mother of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy.

"She went up to Vancouver for a vacation, that was all," said her 
distraught brother, Steve Nguyen, 22, a cook at the family's Regina 
restaurant, the Vietnamese Garden.

"She doesn't know anything about drugs. I don't think she even knew what 
ecstasy was or had even seen the drug before," he said in a telephone 
interview.

Thi-Tung Nguyen was the family's only daughter and lived at home with her 
parents and small son, Tyler.

She came to Vancouver for the weekend and died in Vancouver General 
Hospital on Sunday, Oct. 28, after taking ecstasy at a rave at the Pacific 
Coliseum the preceding Saturday night.

Chief coroner Terry Smith doesn't know how much of the drug Nguyen 
ingested, but said toxicology results released Tuesday showed it was a "bad 
batch."

A 16-year-old Vancouver youth, Khanh Vo, also died after taking the drug.

Steve Nguyen said his sister didn't know the youth.

Steve said Thi-Tung was staying with friends in Vancouver that he had never 
met. He is certain his sister had never been to a rave or used the drug 
before, "but to tell you the truth, I have no idea what happened."

Steve said the family was expecting his sister back Sunday morning when 
they received a call from Thi-Tung's 28-year-old uncle, who lives in Vancouver.

Steve, his parents, and brother left the restaurant where they spend most 
of their waking hours and flew to Vancouver to be at Thi-Tung's bedside.

"When we got there, we had already come to terms with the fact that she was 
brain dead. But we still kept up hope that she would wake up. We were 
trying to talk to her," he said.

The family arrived at the hospital at 6 p.m. on Oct. 28. At 10:30 p.m., 
Thi-Tung was pronounced dead.

Steve said his parents and grandparents -- all of whom live in Regina -- 
still can't believe his sister is dead.

His grandparents were so devastated by the loss that they convinced 
Thi-Tung's 28-year-old uncle to come back to Regina from Vancouver: "My 
grandparents are afraid it's going to happen to him too, so they moved him 
back here."

Thi-Tung -- who was studying to be a computer technician at a Regina 
college -- was born in Vietnam and came to Canada with her two brothers and 
parents in 1992. Her brother described his sister as someone who was "very 
fun to be around and very friendly."

Thi-Tung married three years ago but was separated from her husband. After 
her death, her son moved to live with her former husband's family.

Steve said his family desperately wants to keep the connection with her 
son. "I think his dad is going to look after him, but we want some time 
with the baby ... We look at him as our own.

The family had a Buddhist service for Nguyen in Regina on Nov. 4.

In addition to the two deaths on Oct. 28, a third suspected ecstasy 
overdose in southern B.C. occurred on Nov. 1, when a 21-year-old Vancouver 
woman collapsed outside the Sugar Night Club in Victoria at 4:30 a.m. She 
is now in hospital.

Until these most recent cases, the coroner's office had linked three deaths 
in British Columbia to ecstasy, and another two to MDA, a different drug 
from the same family as ecstasy.

On Tuesday, the chief coroner renewed his call for anyone in possession of 
ecstasy to dispose of it in a safe manner.
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