Adelaide Restaurant saves a life, thanks to having an EpiPen® station on site!

Adelaide Restaurant saves a life, thanks to having an EpiPen® station on site!

For the people who manage life-threatening anaphylaxis, eating out can be fraught with embarrassment, awkwardness but mostly danger. 

The ‘Tuk Tuk” is Adelaide restaurant Golden Boy’s sharing menu. The wait staff choose the dishes to ensure you are served the best combination of Thai food for the best experience, while catering for dietaries and allergies. Unfortunately, even with all the processes front of house and the kitchen have in place, a simple pleasure can turn deadly. And very quickly. 

Savvy and well-respected Golden Boy proprietor, Sondra Deering says,“A First Aid Kit and training is a requirement and provides you with tools to treat situations that generally you have time to seek medical attention. Having an EpiPen® is not a requirement but you only have minutes between life and death when this situation occurs, and you want to know you are prepared. For the safety of your customers and the well being of the staff that could be faced with this situation, I would rather be safe than sorry. You cannot rely on customers having their EpiPen® with them, or there is always the possibility that they discover they are anaphylactic while dining with you.”

On Friday 16th August 2019, that’s exactly what happened. A customer at Golden Boy, in his early 30’s had experienced a reaction to nuts in the past, but nothing ‘too serious’ when asked if he had any dietary requirements. Unfortunately, on this night the customer experienced his ‘first’ anaphylactic reaction. The quick thinking Manager on duty reached for the EpiPen® they have on hand at Golden Boy, administrated the adrenaline and an Ambulance was called. The customer was in anaphylactic shock in their busy restaurant but has thankfully since made a full recovery.

“Of course this incident has shaken us, it was a shock for the customer too! We are all so thankful we were prepared and had an EpiPen® station on site ” says Sondra “It’s really not worth the risk to not have one.”

Founder of Globalaai, Pooja Newman, who also lives with life-threatening anaphylaxis said, “With 1 in 10 Australian babies in Australia are being diagnosed with life-threatening allergies, the time for awareness and inclusivity in our community is now.” It’s not just about peanuts these days.

Globalaai is a not-for-profit and South Australian based organisation with a global voice for allergy and anaphylaxis and mission for positive change of social awareness and safety. Pooja installed the EpiPen® station at Golden Boy and recently attended a debriefing session for the staff to discuss what had happened and the opportunity to ask further questions. All of the staff attended voluntarily and there were also staff from a neighbour restaurant in attendance. In fact, during the question and answer time, a new staff member disclosed his own peanut allergy.

Now that’s inclusivity!

This article was originally released by Globalaai on 1 October 2019.
Altaira Nursing Services are proud supporters of Globalaai.