Scots backpacker stranded in Thailand after two friends die from suspected poisoning Published on Tuesday 19 June 2012 14:09 A SCOTTSH teaching assistant told today how she's been stranded in the same resort in Thailand where two of her friends were found dead on Friday from suspected poisonings after hospital staff confiscated her passport. Samantha Kay, 24, from Dundee, fell ill shortly before Canadian sisters Audrey, 20 and Noemi Belanger, 26, were found dead in their hospital room, and the Scot has spent three days in hospital. However, when Samantha was discharged, her travel insurance company refused to pay for her treatment and hospital staff retained her passport. Samantha, who left a job as a teaching assistant in Townhill Community School in Swansea to travel the world, has been told she will not get it back until she pays the £400 bill. She said: "I was just crying the whole day when I heard, it was just heartbreaking. They were lovely and I was just talking with them and dancing with them last week. The 24-year-old heard the devastating news when she was released from Phi Phi Island Hospital at the weekend. She said: "I was really ill. Food poisoning has been spoken about but it was dehydration as well. It could have been bacteria or a virus or something. The hospital is full of people with the same thing - it's shocking. The hospital kept my passport because the insurance company wouldn't pay up-front for my treatment. They've still got it and I can't leave here until my dad pays the £400. I'm sure I'll get it back from the insurance, but what if I didn't have my dad? I'd be stuck here and I really just want to get to Australia now. I can't wait to get out of here Samantha says she met Audrey and Noemi Belanger of Pohenegamook, Quebec, as she was promoting restaurants, bars and a pleasure boat. The sisters were found dead by a cleaning lady at the Phi Phi Palms Hotel on the paradise island on Friday. There was said to be evidence of vomiting in the hotel room and the victims had skin lesions, bleeding gums and blue fingernails and toenails - all of which can be symptoms of poisoning. Sami said: "My job is going out and speaking to people and handing them leaflets, taking them into bars and restaurants and chatting to them. The girls were lovely. I chatted to them and we ended up dancing at the club. I don't know what's happened, they're saying they were poisoned. There's lots of rumours flying around about. Some people said it might have been a gas leak at the hotel, other people said it could have been fumes from cleaning fluid they use in the flats. But you can buy all sorts of stuff here and some people say it could have been something they bought on the beach. The exact cause of death has not been determined. The bodies are to be transported to a hospital in Bangkok so that autopsies can be carried out. The Thai authorities confirmed that nothing had been taken from Belanger sisters" room and the door had been locked from the inside. Lieutenant Colonel Jongrak Pimthong said: "The police have determined that they had been dead for at least 24 hours." He added that the traces of blood on the faces of the two women, is a sign that they may have died as a reaction to poisoning. He added: "There was no sign of any violence or of any theft, but we did find a lot of medication out in the room, including ibuprofen, which can cause serious stomach distress." Three years ago on the same resort island two women, an American and a Norwegian, were found poisoned in their adjoining rooms. The deaths are still unsolved.