Having a food allergy is terrifying. Imagine if something that most people eat every day could kill you. It’s like being vegetarian, but if eating meat murdered you. Also, you have to trust other people when they tell you your potential murderer is not present in the food they prepare. Unless it is, because they forgot, or don’t care, or don’t know. Here are some horror stories from redditors who ate that thing they’re not supposed to eat.
1. AgEx came face to face with a jerk. A very well-seasoned jerk. And a chicken, too.
I had a pretty serious incident pretty recently actually. Lady went into anaphylaxis over a chicken sandwich.
She was in the ICU for nearly a week with a breathing tube in. Had an ulcerated larynx, had to get a trach put in to assist in the healing process.
Just bad news all around, over a damn chicken sandwich. Phosphates in the jerk seasoning.
2. And to think that Snowman526 could’ve picked one of the 7,455 other things on the menu at the Cheesecake Factory.
I can't bring myself to eat cheesecake anymore. Ever since the class trip I took in 8th grade to Baltimore, I can't. We went to the inner harbor for lunch before going to the aquarium, and the students had free roam. My friend and I decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory for desert. I'm SEVERELY allergic to walnuts. There were walnuts in the slice that I got, there was no type of allergy warning at all. I took two bites of it, and I got a very annoying itching sensation in my tongue and down my throat. Soon, I was struggling to breath and sitting on the curb. My body was going numb and my vision was starting to go black... meanwhile, my teachers were just staring at me. They weren't doing anything. Luckily, EMS got there in time with an oxygen tank. An ambulance came and took me to the hospital. My principal rode in it with me and made sure I got home safely. To this day, I can't bring myself to eat it... I remember that awful itching/burning feeling
3. At least the person this deleted user saw doesn’t have to eat in the dining hall anymore.
I work at a college dining hall, so most of it is self-serve. Student with nut allergy goes to desserts station, looks for nut-free dessert, picks up spatula, serves self dessert, is taken to hospital very soon after with anaphylaxis. Near as we can tell, another student picked up the spatula from the nut-free dessert to serve one with nuts, and put it back (could also be our fuckup; who knows? The student theory is the official dogma at work). Student is now off the meal plan.
4. User mk44 has a most eggs-cellent story about the time he almost killed his boss’s daughter.
I sent my head chefs daughter to hospital because of an egg allergy.
The head chef comes in with his familly on his day off, and they all order brunch. One of his daughters has an egg allergy. I had cooked for her before, so I knew what she could and couldn't eat from our menu.
I cooked some hash browns and bacon on the flat top for her, but forgot that I had cooked a fried egg on there earlier that morning. I scraped it down, but aparantly that wasn't enough.
I put their table up, and 5 minutes later I see the head chef sprint through the restaraunt carrying his daughter under his arm. All I can think was omg I've killed my bosses daughter. I'm going to be fired for sure.
He took her to the hospital and once she got some medicine she was ok. Chef was very cool about it. He wasn't even mad. He said that she hadn't had a reaction in a long time, and they where wondering if she had grown out of her allergy. Now they knew they still need to be careful with her.
5. User raggamuffinchef works at a restaurant in Canada, where the Bloody Mary-like Caesar is popular, except among people deathly allergic to its ingredients.
I'n the US, you have bloody Maries. In the great white North we have Caesars. The difference is y'all use tomato juice, while we use a horrid concoction called clamato, a mix of tomato and clam juice.
A server we had didn't know the difference and didn't know to warn of the possible shellfish allergy. Thankfully the hospital is only 10 blocks away and hey, Canada healthcare. I've adjusted my training guide to teach this now.
6. In Tango10’s family, “pavlova” is a Russian word for “I hope you die.”
My partner's family don't forget, they just don't care! I can't eat anything with egg in it, and without fail, every time we visit for lunch or dinner his mother will serve a pavlova for dessert. She also does this simpering little "sorry Tango10" as she brings it out. She knows what she is doing.
7. Take it from dearwinnies: the lobster bisque probably has shellfish in it.
Well when I was interning at a French restaurant sometime last year. I had a friend (a classmate of mine) who was allergic to shellfish. She knew she was allergic to shellfish but not sure to what extend or what types of shellfish. You know some people can be allergic to prawns but no crabs or something like that. She only knows she can't eat oysters.
So Long story short, we were learning how to make lobster bisque from the Chef in charge and he made us try the lobster bisque so we can know what it should taste like the next time we make it. Knowing that she is allergic to oysters, she wasn't too sure about lobsters she gave it a try. She went into cardiac arrest almost three minutes into tasting a teaspoon of lobster bisque and rode away to the hospital. Well now we all know that she should really stay away from all shellfish, oysters or not.
8. This now deleted user missed half of The Phantom Menace because of a food allergy. On the bright side, they missed half of The Phantom Menace.
Can't eat certain artificial colouring in food, specifically red. At age 8 I ate an entire bag of twizzlers in a theatre during Star Wars episode I and missed the second half of the movie being sick in the bathroom.
9. Apparently this deleted user didn’t know the old adage “white corn = live, red corn = die.”
I ordered chicken flautas at a Tex-Mex restaurant.
They mixed up my order with shrimp flautas. That was the day I discovered I am allergic to shellfish.
I ended up in an ambulance because my throat swelled so badly I couldn't breathe.
The staff at the restaurant claimed I should have known better than to eat the flautas because they use yellow corn tortillas for chicken flautas and red corn tortillas for shrimp. I should have known I was served the wrong color.
Right. That had been the first time I was at that restaurant, I didn't know they had a fucking color scheme. If anything, the red flautas should have tipped off my server that the orders were mixed up.
Still angry about it. They can kill someone with that kind of inattention.
10. Moby1029 didn’t mind their peas and q’s.
Asian cuisine class at 0500 in the morning. It's my final. I'm allergic to peas, and my Chef Instructor knew this, so I didn't add peas to my fried rice. I make my two bowls for him, and set aside one bowl for me on one of the extra prep tables away from my station. After presenting my fried rice and being graded, I went to where i set my spare bowl aside, and accidentally picked up another classmate's bowl...with peas. I was about halfway into the bowl when I realized there were peas, so i discreetly tossed it and went back to work and started slamming water. Almost immediately, my throat started getting scratchy and swelling up. I had to ask permission to run to the store for a Benadryll, a third of the way into my final and had to go through the rest of my final with trouble breathing and my throat feeling like shit.
11. This story from armadillo_party? It’s nuts.
A friend of my dad's is married to a woman with a severe nut allergy; she touches something that was touched by nuts and touched her face? Down for the count. They went to eat at a very fancy restaurant in my city and informed the waiter that she would, in fact, die if she touched nuts. Well that was all taken care of, of course! Nope. Thirty seconds into their meal she is in shock, having a reaction an has stopped breathing. She's okay now, but they sued that place for every cent they had.