Girl wins RM50 at drinking game but loses life

A typical rice wine shop in China.

Five male office workers who made a RM50 bet with a female colleague to drink a whole bottle of rice wine, causing her to die from blood poisoning, may now have to pay her family more than RM50,000 as compensation for her death and funeral expenses, as well as the emotional trauma suffered by her family.

The incident at Foshan City in China's Guangdong province happened in March, when a woman named Ah Yun was challenged by five of her male colleagues to swallow a bottle of rice wine with a 40% alcohol content.

Ah Yun, who joined the property firm in July last year, accepted their wager, gulped down the liquor and pocketed their 100 Yuan bet.

Several hours later, however, another staff saw her lying unconscious at her desk. Panicking when he couldn't wake her up, he called for his superior who informed Ah Yun's husband, and then they rushed her to the hospital, but doctors were unable to revive her.

Doctors said she died of alcohol intoxication, after finding extremely high levels of alcohol in her bloodstream. Anyone with a blood alcohol level of 0.30 to 0.39 would already be in danger, but her reading was at 0.50 which lead to her death.

Two of the five workmates responsible for the bet, including the guy who brought to rice wine to the office, each offered Ah Yun's family 5,000 Yuan (RM2,500) to cover all of her hospital bill. But her family has filed a civil suit against the five men and the company they work for.

Ah Yun's family are demanding 640,000 Yuan (RM320,000) to pay for her funeral expenses, as compensation for her dependants and for the anguish they suffered at her death.

Nanhai District People's Court has ordered the five men to fork over 110,000 Yuan (RM55,000) to Ah Yun's family and the company was told to hand over another 10,000 Yuan (RM5,000). The defendants are now appealing the verdict.

Source: Southern Daily