A Christmas I wont forget

[Max69vk]

Picture the scene......

Its 1am on Xmas morning, me & the other half are in bed after going out for a nice romantic meal, she's asleep & Im on here wishing people a Merry Christmas. All of a sudden Nina jumps up out of bed & then just as quickly hits the floor mumbling about wanting to be sick. Now having seen this routine before Im thinking she's p*ssed as a newt again & tell her (none to politely) to do it in the bathroom as Im fed up of mopping it up off the laminate!

A couple of minutes pass & I dont hear anything so I think I'll go & investigate, when I get to the bathroom I get the shock of my life when I find her on the floor of the bathroom completely delerious, white as a sheet & sweating buckets.

Having done a first aid course a couple of years ago I run through a few of the basics & its not looking good, I started shouting like a maniac to try & wake everyone else in the house up to give me some assistance, finally my mum, sister, dad all arrive & Im barking orders left right centre. Now by this point she's totally out of it, her heart rate is slowing down & she's getting colder & paler by the second & Im now totally sh*tting myself & before I know it her breathing is stop starting & Im getting ready to do mouth to mouth (which is not a nice experience no matter who it is), time seems to be standing still at this point while Im shouting for the ambulance, cold flannels, blankets etc

Eventually the emergency services turn up & after a quick check they agree she needs to go to A&E, so we get her down 2 flights of stairs (the joys of living in the loft!) into the ambulance & we're off to the hospital. Now after what seems like possibly the slowest emergency journey in the history of mankind we finally get there (1 mile from my home) after 20 minutes of driving! It turns out the ambulance is not from our area & has travelled from Battersea (6-7 miles away) to get us there, & the sat nav has just sent us round the houses! Now while we're en-route the crew have been asking me all kinds of questions of what we've drunk, eaten, done etc through out the night she's looking really bad now & Im realising quite how frantic Im becoming as my whole body is now shaking with fear.

We're quickly whisked into an A&E bay & the doctor looks at charts & info that the ambulance crew have been taking from me & starts taking blood samples for testing. Thankfully by now her breathing has stablised, she's becoming slightly more alert, & her dad turns up which makes me feel a whole lot more relaxed as he's had loads of experience of this sort of thing after working for MI? & the Foreign office (think meet the parents & you're not far off!). The doctor returns after what seems like an eternity & sticks an IV drip into her arm, & explains to us that she's suffering the effect of acute food poisoning! Amazingly they'd also pinpointed the cause to being the rice in the mushroom risotto she'd eaten only 5 hours earlier!

Its now gone 3am Xmas morning & Im dying on my feet as I'd only had 4hrs sleep the night before & there's no chairs in the bay, Im trying to keep her calm by stroking her head & speaking to her, & everything starts to be looking a bit brighter for the first time that night. If only that was it! All of a sudden her whole body starts shaking like she's having a fit & we're shouting for the nurses, after checking her over we're told that she's having a reaction to the IV drip she's been given for the sickness, they then stick her with even more needles to stop the shaking but they need to leave the drip running until its complete!

Finally about 5am the drip is complete, the shaking has stopped & she's fully concious (if not slightly doped up), I can breathe a sigh of relief & go to change my underwear! The doctors finally explain to me that rice is actually one of the most deadly & biggest causes of food poisoning in the UK if not cooked, stored, or reheated properly!

We gently bundle Nina into her dads car & take her to her parents, we then get her up the stairs into bed & I stay awake until Im sure she's ok & fallen asleep, its now 7.30am & Im totally ****ed with my nerves shot to pieces! Happy Xmas! style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="-_-" border="0" alt="sleep.gif" />

Sorry to go on for so long, this whole thing has really scared the living sh*t out of me & I cant believe it was caused by something so simple. I haven't had the chance to talk about anybody about this yet so I just felt the need to vent off somewhere & this just seemed like this was the best way.

Again sorry to go on for so long, & I hope evryone else had a cracking crimbo!

Max

[Mr P]

**** the bed thats bad! hope that all is well by now and heres hoping for a better xmas next year for you and the missus

[Philplop]

style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":o" border="0" alt="ohmy.gif" />

Bit of a pisser.

[VDub Lady]

my goodness style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":o" border="0" alt="ohmy.gif" />

im glad to hear she is ok.

rice is nasty tbh it grows bacteria(sp) really really fast if it is left!

god im so glad she is ok, u never think food can do much other than making u throw up lots, very worrying!

good job u were there, think if she was on her own or with someone who didnt know what to do.

i think i mite learn first aid now, you never know when you may need it!

al x

[Adam K]

at first i read it as a ninja jumped up and out of your bed.

[Max69vk]

at first i read it as a ninja jumped up and out of your bed.

style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> Thats what her friends used to call her at uni!

She's doing a lot better now but is still a little bit weak which is to be expected. Its obviously not the ideal xmas we could have hoped for, but we've learnt a good lesson from all this NO RICE! style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

[Philplop]

at first i read it as a ninja jumped up and out of your bed.

Me too! style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> Then it got a bit more serious.

[Putney]

Well i never thought of rice as being potentially deadly! Wel done seems like you did all the right things under pressure! it's a bloody good job you got up and checked on her.

style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":coffee:" border="0" alt="coffee.gif" />

[Fran]

Sorry to hear about this, but I hope she's feeling a bit better now.

I ended up with food poisoning over Xmas last year, made me incredibly weary of that turkey this year!!!!

[Joe]

Flippin 'eck. Hope shes ok now. And after all those 3 billion presents you had ready around the tree. If they went to waste send em up this way style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />.

Didn't have any idea rice could do that.

*runs off to check packet to see if it has health warnings*

[Dan_F]

Christ what a nasty experience style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad.gif" /> Hope she's feeling better now

[Picola]

at first i read it as a ninja jumped up and out of your bed.

Snap, I did too.

Mushroom rice? Thats unlucky she got poisoned off that, I would of thought it harmless.

Glad shes ok, and back to full stomach health for the new year

[Max69vk]

I've just had a call from her mum to say that they're heading into town to try & hit the sales, so she must be feeling a lot better now! style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> As you can tell from my last post the events of the last few days have seriously screwed with my sleep pattern, which should be interesting as Im working till 5am on New years day! style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":sleeping:" border="0" alt="sleeping.gif" />

[Picola]

Was the food off? Or did she just have a bad reaction. If the former......compo!

[Max69vk]

They reckon the rice had been pre-prepared & then not reheated properly before it was served, tbh I was wondering where to go with this now as this is quite a serious balls-up by the restaurant. style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":confused:" border="0" alt="confused.gif" />

[emo_gazz]

rice is actually one of the most deadly & biggest causes of food poisoning in the UK if not cooked, stored, or reheated properly!

WOW, i never knew that.

at first i read it as a ninja jumped up and out of your bed.

Dito, i had to read that part twice as i thought style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blink:" border="0" alt="blink.gif" /> hmmmm that cant be right.

Glad to her that all is better now. I cant imagin how i would be if it was kellie. You might wanna get the health inspectors to go check that place out (just an idea).

[Picola]

They reckon the rice had been pre-prepared & then not reheated properly before it was served, tbh I was wondering where to go with this now as this is quite a serious balls-up by the restaurant. style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":confused:" border="0" alt="confused.gif" />

It was a restaurant?!

Well they've addmitted they've knobbed up, Id get reading up on law cases. I dont always agree with sueing, but you might get a few bob for the Arosa lol

[andyp]

**** mate, not good at all, still if shes hitting the sales then must be feeling better!!! lol

id ring the restaurant and complain big time....

Edited December 27, 2006 by andyp

[Swoxy]

What she do now depends on what Nina wants out of the situation. She could get the hospital to write a letter stating she got food poisoning, and then show it to the restaurant threatening local press and legal action to see if they offer up any cash. Alternatively, she could get her local council to investigate. Either way, glad to hear she's OK mate.

[Max69vk]

What she do now depends on what Nina wants out of the situation. She could get the hospital to write a letter stating she got food poisoning, and then show it to the restaurant threatening local press and legal action to see if they offer up any cash. Alternatively, she could get her local council to investigate. Either way, glad to hear she's OK mate.

I'd thought that too, but at the end of the day its her decision & Im not going to push it. TBH we've eaten at this place loads of times before & so have most of our friends, & no-one has had ever any problems, I've literally just spoken to a freind who reckons the chef had flown back to Italy the day before for xmas!

[Luppie70]

I got a touch of food poisoning a few years back from a Chinese resturant and my doctor said she would involve environmental health if I had been alot worse as it could kill some people

Glad to hear shes back on her feet again style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

[Nicki]

Not a very merry Christmas at all. Hope you have a better New Years. Most important thing is that Nina's on the mend.

Alternatively, she could get her local council to investigate.

The 2nd most important thing is that you need to do something to prevent this from happening to someone else... I'm sure you'd agree that you would hate for someone else to go through what you & Nina have been through. Go to the council - get them investigated. The laws & regulations governing food establishments are a *lot* more strict than you might imagine. TBH, I would think that 75% of places would be shut down either temporarily or permanently if they were subjected to random spot checks...

Also, local papers - they always love a juicy story.

rice is nasty tbh

Thats not a very nice thing to say about your man Alix! style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":lol:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

[Jen]

flippin heck how utterly terrifying style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad.gif" /> im very glad shes ok and recovering now.