TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An employer of an Australian exchange student who ingested rat poison provided a detailed account of his early symptoms, emergency medical care, and diagnosis from March to April on Tuesday (May 16).
Alex Shorey, a 24-year-old Australian college student who came to Taiwan as an exchange student, is suspected of being exposed to rodenticide and was admitted to the intensive care unit of Taipei Medical University Hospital, before being medevaced to his home country. Shorey's family members said they were suspicious about the circumstances around his poisoning, and the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office has started a criminal investigation.
In an interview with Taiwan News on Tuesday, Elly Chen, the 42-year-old owner of the online English instruction website Elly English, said that Shorey first contacted her about a job opening as a tutor on Feb. 7. Shorey then began teaching history and chess on the website in late February three times a week.
Shorey was originally scheduled on March 26 to attend a field trip organized by Chen's company. However, on March 24, Shorey told her that he was not feeling well with a lack of appetite and had stopped eating since March 23.
When Chen asked Shorey what he had eaten on March 23, he said that he had a beef salad at home previously ordered from a restaurant. Chen claimed this rules out earlier rumors that Shorey had eaten street food contaminated with rat poison.
Shorey speculated that he had left the beef in the refrigerator for too long and thought that this had caused the food poisoning. She suggested he skip two meals and rest at home, but later that evening, he informed her that his nose was bleeding.
She recommended he apply an ice pack to his nose for 10-20 minutes. On the morning of March 26, Chen went to Shorey's apartment to check in on him and could see signs of bleeding on his pillow and sheets.
Chen urged Shorey to go to the hospital, but he declined because he said he consulted with his father, who is a physician. She went to a pharmacy near Shorey's residence and purchased medication to stop bleeding as well as a painkiller because he was also complaining of stomach pains.
According to Chen, Shorey started to feel better after taking the medication but stayed at home to rest. When Chen returned to Shorey's apartment at around 6 p.m., he was moving around and seemed to have improved.
Shorey told her that he would end his contract and planned to move out of his apartment and move in with his friend, who was later revealed by news reports to be a 45-year-old woman currently being investigated by prosecutors for her involvement in the incident.
Emergency room visit
His condition again worsened, including more bleeding and stomach pain at around 9 p.m. and he told Chen that he needed to go to the ER. Chen called an Uber to take them to Taipei Medical University Hospital.
Doctors initially thought Shorey had food poisoning. X-rays of his head and abdomen did not detect any abnormalities.
Shorey was then given medication intravenously to stop the bleeding. After staying in the hospital for two-three hours, Shorey said, "Elly, I feel much better."
The attending physician said Shorey could go home. Chen says she continued to monitor him when she took him back to his apartment.
Second trip to hospital
On Monday (March 27), Chen took Shorey back to the hospital to pick up additional medication. After taking him back to his apartment around noon, Chen noticed that he again seemed to be in pain.
Chen offered to let him stay in her home. However, Shorey declined her offer as he "did not want to be a burden."
She said that he should at least have someone to take care of him. Shorey said he would stay with his friend, and Chen believes that he moved in with the woman on that day.
That same evening, Shorey informed Chen that his condition had improved. She reminded him that there would be another event in April and to let her know if he thought he could go.
On April 1, Shorey told Chen that his symptoms had worsened again. She recommended that he make an appointment to see a specialist rather than go to an emergency room.
Rat poison diagnosis
His appointment was slated for the first weekend of April. On April 3, the hospital informed Chen that Shorey's results had come back.
She suggested Shorey change his contact number as she could not accompany him at all times. Shorey told her over the phone that doctors said his kidneys were swollen and believed he was suffering from an immune system condition.
Shorey said that he had been losing so much blood that he was going to the hospital to get daily blood transfusions.
Between April 5-10, Shorey told Chen that he was improving again. She suggested he return to Australia, but he said he would stay and "hang in there."
On April 10, Shorey taught his first class since the symptoms had started and messaged Chen notifying her that doctors had determined that he had ingested the rat poison superwarfarin. He said doctors were going to administer vitamin K to reverse the anticoagulant effect of rodenticide and that he would take two weeks of rest. This was the last message from Shorey.
She said that he guaranteed that he would come back to work after his break. She copied and pasted this message for parents in a Line group to inform them of his absence.
Cutting of communications
On April 11, Chen says that he stopped responding to her and blocked her on Line and Facebook, while parents of his students noticed that he had left the school's Line group. She said she did not see any signs of discord with Shorey in their online correspondence and was upset that he had suddenly severed communications.
On May 6, she was contacted by the media about the incident. After appearing on the news, Chen said the police contacted her as they had been searching for the person who had taken Shorey to the early hospital visits.
Having paid NT$6,700 (US$217) for Shorey's trip to the ER due to his lack of National Health Insurance coverage before he cut communications with her, Chen decided to post an account of Shorey's alleged actions in a Facebook post on the “Foreigners in Taiwan” discussion group. After uploading the post, Chen said that on April 13 or 14, the manager of a cram school where Shorey also worked messaged her and offered to help compensate her for the ER expenses.
She says that the manager sent a text to Shorey asking him if the school could deduct NT$3,000 from his final paycheck. According to the cram school manager, Shorey agreed.
Chen said that when she visited the Taipei District Prosecutors Office on May 11, the investigation involved the use of illegal narcotics. When Taiwan News contacted the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday (May 17) to confirm that it is conducting an investigation into drug crimes, it said that the details of the case are not open to the public.
Response to Facebook post criticism
In response to criticism about the Facebook post, Chen said that she was angry that she paid for his ER expenses, and he resigned from his position without notifying her in advance. She felt it was necessary to warn other employers about his behavior.
Chen said that she presented prosecutors with this post, which includes screenshots from her last conversation with Shorey, to prove that he had blocked her. She believes this will also aid investigators in piecing together the timeline of events in Shorey's case, and will therefore not delete the post.
Taiwan News contacted the PR agency fielding media inquiries for Shorey, MacComms, and asked about his present condition and if he could provide an explanation about his severing of ties with Chen. The representative replied by writing "I have no further updates from the family at this time."
