Madagascar - Alana Cutland, 19, Jumps to Death from Airplane. Malaria Drug Psychosis. 25 July 2019

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This is a worth reading news article complete with lots of pictures. Remote location and sudden illness = Terrifying. Thanks PastTense for the link. I thought about this all night. It must have been some kind of drug interaction. I pray they find her body and are able to test to give her family answers.

Alana Cutland was hallucinating on prescription drugs when she plunged to her death in Madagascar | Daily Mail Online

'We think she had suffered a severe reaction to some drugs but not anti-malaria ones because she had taken those on her trip last year to China without any side effects.'

now...

"Teams are searching for her body but there are fears that it may not be found because she jumped into a remote area of the Madagascan jungle filled with carnivorous wild animals including the panther-like fossa mongoose."

ETA = there's a link in article to this site about antimalarials Malaria - Antimalarials
 
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It sounds like the malaria drugs were not the problem, since she had taken them at another time. The only thing that comes to mind is maybe she was haphazard with the pills in the sense that she started them late, or missed some days.

I suspect that nothing short of a straightjacket could have prevented her from jumping out of the plane.
 
kaen said:
I have traveled to areas that recommend Larium to prevent malaria. I will say that it really wrecked havoc with me twice. On subsequent trips, I went with the doxycycline because it had fewer concerning side effects. Sleeping after taking Larium was always a wild ride for me---- lots of extremely vivid dreams with tons of dizziness and an odd wake cycle that was emotional and, at times, unhinged.

This poor young woman must have been terrified even though most doctors warn of the side effects.

Also, that fellow traveler and pilot must be devastated that they could not save her.
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Every traveler prescribed this drug should read your post. Thank You for sharing your experience. You said at times taking the drug you felt "unhinged". I'm convinced this was some kind of drug interaction. Please, no one should blame Alana for not taking the medication correctly. She most likely took it as it was prescribed and as she had taken it before without a problem.

BBM
 
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otto said:
Did she have malaria or was she taking pills to strengthen her immune system?
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She didn't have malaria. My guess is that she may have taken too many pills, fearing she could get malaria.
 
What a tragic loss...my heart goes out to Alana’s parents, family & friends.

I do hope they can find her body as this will be some comfort to her family, if they can take her home & lay her to rest.

This case particularly resonates with me, as my daughter spent 10 weeks in Madagascar 2 years ago, with a company called ‘Reef Doctor’.

She was scuba diving almost daily, learning about the coral reef & how to do scientific surveys, taking part in various conservation projects, working alongside the local people.

It was a most interesting experience but I was SO relieved when she returned home safely.

Her eldest brother has taken the antimalarial medication Larium & experienced quite severe depression/ mood changes while taking it.

For this reason my daughter & her other siblings, palways elect to take doxycycline, as an antimalarial, which has less in the way of side-effects.

Rest in Peace Alana.
 
I guess I'll never be traveling to Madagascar. All the recommend meds I'm either allergic to or they are contraindicated. That said I don't think she was necessarily taking her meds wrong or dosing inappropriately to be reacting badly to them. You can develop a reaction at any time to meds that were previously fine. And it can take a while of meds building up in someone's system for things to get really bad. So just because she wasn't full fledged paranoid after one or two doses doesn't mean it was necessarily error on her part in taking the meds that she later ended up so ill.
 
Sarahlou said:
I don't think she did anything wrong with taking them I think she just had an awful reaction to them. Really really tragic story this.

This article said she feared she would be jailed if she didn't finish her studies
Cambridge student was on her flight home when she jumped from a plane in Madagascar | Daily Mail Online
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She did think she was going to be jailed. There's pics of the resort lodge where she was staying. There's description of the events leading up to her getting on the plane. Her parents did so much to get her help. It's heartbreaking. There seems no doubt this was a drug reaction of some sort, and from what people have described here...

I urge anyone planning to travel and take the prescribed anti-malaria prescriptions to be aware of the side effects.

Actually, I was checking here today to see if she has been found. Please, dear members, post if you run across that news in the future.

Mr Damasy said that Alana had fallen into an area which included a lake, dense forest, woodland and swamps. Her body has still not been found, despite intensive searches by air force personnel in spotter planes as well as between 180 and 200 people on the ground including police and local villagers.

Mr Damasy said he had also viewed the area from a light aircraft and could appreciate the difficulties faced by local search teams. He said the search was being concentrated in an area measuring 4kms by 10kms.

Mr Damasy added: 'We told the local population what had happened. These people have been giving their own time to look for her. Some of them have dogs. They are being supported by gendarmes.

'The local population are very gentle people and they are working very hard.'

Mr Damasy said that an aircraft from the Madagascar air force had flown two hour missions over the search area every morning and afternoon for four days to try and find the body.

He said: 'They flew a zig zag search pattern every day between Saturday and Tuesday. They saw nothing, however. Due to the density of the forest and the presence of the swamp, there are difficulties.'

He insisted that he was hopeful her body would be found, but admitted it was possible that she might have been taken by cat-like creatures called fossas which are the island's largest carnivores, often compared to small cougars.

He added: 'The local people are continuing their search. The search of the ground will continue until the local people are tired.
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Cambridge student was on her flight home when she jumped from a plane in Madagascar | Daily Mail Online
 
"THE family of plane plunge student Alana Cutland are investigating whether a yellow fever jab could have driven her insane before she jumped from a plane.

They are making urgent inquiries after being contacted by a former BBC war correspondent who told how he became a “raving lunatic” after having the inoculation."
Alana Cutland's family fear yellow fever jab sent her 'insane' before she jumped to her death from plane in Madagascar

"Villagers searching for the body of Cambridge student Alana Cutland after she jumped from a light aircraft in Madagascar turn to their Malagasy religion and sacrifice a cow in the hope it will help find her
 
Thanks for the new development. Glad her family is going after answers. Pray she is found soon.

Alana Cutland's family fear yellow fever jab sent her 'insane' before she jumped to her death from plane in Madagascar

I noticed the other day when I posted this list for mefloquine interactions that the typhoid vaccine live was listed but not as a major interaction. It did get me thinking of all the shots she might've gotten.

Drugs with red dots are major interactions. I didn't find a connection, but people react to things differently. IMO, in general, it's important to know which medications are dangerous together.

Mefloquine Drug Interactions
Mefloquine Drug Interactions - Drugs.com

Stamaril Drug Interactions
189 Major Drug Interactions
Stamaril Drug Interactions - Drugs.com
 
"The body of tragic student Alana Cutland is believed to have been found in Madagascar nearly two weeks after she leapt to her death from a light aircraft.

The grim discovery was made today by local villagers who have been searching constantly for any sign of Alana, 19, since she plunged 3,700ft to the ground.

The police chief who has been leading the search confirmed that the body had been provisionally identified as the teenager by her hair colour, shoes and clothing.

Villagers are preparing to move the body to the tiny airstrip at Anjajavy in north west Madagascar before it is flown 400 miles by helicopter to the capital Antananarivo tomorrow."
Villagers 'find Cambridge student Alana Cutland's body' after 12-day search for the 19-year-old | Daily Mail Online
 
I hope there is an effort to compensate the villagers for their time searching--Madagascar has a per capita GDP of $450 per YEAR--and it will be much less in a remote rural area like this (conversely more in the big cities).
 
Curious Me said:
Every traveler prescribed this drug should read your post. Thank You for sharing your experience. You said at times taking the drug you felt "unhinged". I'm convinced this was some kind of drug interaction. Please, no one should blame Alana for not taking the medication correctly. She most likely took it as it was prescribed and as she had taken it before without a problem.

BBM
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Yes, I agree. It is my opinion that a psychotic episode induced by such a medication is not predictable. Even if you’ve taken it 10 times with no side effects, there is no guarantee your 11th time will be the same.

I’m really feeling for her friends and family. Such a loss.
 
KNinTX said:
Yes, I agree. It is my opinion that a psychotic episode induced by such a medication is not predictable. Even if you’ve taken it 10 times with no side effects, there is no guarantee your 11th time will be the same.

I’m really feeling for her friends and family. Such a loss.
Click to expand...

BBM. I absolutely think this is true with medications. People develop medication allergies and reactions throughout their lives. Antibiotics is a common one-- never allergic to Amoxicillin and all of a sudden can't take it because of a rash I got. Sister became allergic to shellfish after eating it all of her life.
 
An additional point:
""We only found 40 percent of the body," [chief investigator Spinola Edvin Nomenjanahary] said."
Madagascar says remains of UK student who fell from plane now found

So apparently wild animals found her first and ate the eatable parts.

This makes the statement in post #32 clearer "the body had been provisionally identified as the teenager by her hair colour, shoes and clothing"--as to why the identification was provisional.
 
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I'm glad they found her for her family's sake. Very tragic. I also feel bad for those other people on the plane that tried to stop her. I'm sure they were terrified at the time and now feel terrible that they couldn't prevent it.
 
"The remains of a Cambridge student who fell out of a plane to her death during a study trip to Madagascar have been retrieved from remote scrubland.


The body of Alana Cutland, 19, will be flown to the island’s capital, Antananarivo, today where toxicology tests will be carried out. Family members have linked reports that she deliberately jumped 3,700ft to her death from a two-door Cessna aircraft to the side-effects of anti-malarial drugs."
Drug tests on remains of Cambridge student who fell from plane in Madagascar
 
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