Avoid places that serve seafood.
Via CBC:
A waiter at a Sherbrooke, Que., restaurant was arrested Wednesday for serving salmon to a highly allergic customer in a case one expert says could be a Canadian first.
Simon-Pierre Canuel, a resident of Gatineau, Que., filed a formal complaint against the server at Le Tapageur restaurant after he says he nearly died from his meal.
The waiter could be charged with criminal negligence.
According to the complaint, on May 29, Canuel ordered a beef tartare and alerted the waiter that he was allergic to salmon and seafood, said Sherbrooke police Const. Martin Carrier.
“At the time of the order, the waiter took no notes and never went to the kitchen to talk with staff,” Carrier said.
When the meal arrived, an unsuspecting Canuel took a bite of his food.
“With the dim lighting, it’s not easy to tell the difference between two dishes, especially if they use mayonnaise. It can be confusing,” Canuel said.
He soon realized he wasn’t eating beef and informed his partner, who is a resident doctor.
“He confirmed that it was salmon and he said we had to go to hospital. We told the waiter, who apologized, saying he would bring me beef,” Canuel recalled.
“That’s when I started going into anaphylactic shock and having difficulty breathing.”
Canuel had left his EpiPen in his car.
He was hospitalized at the intensive care unit of the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke, where he was treated for a severe allergic reaction.
He says he also suffered a cardiac arrest the following day and was in a coma for several days.
“I almost died,” he said.
Prison sentence unlikelyCanuel filed a formal complaint with Sherbrooke police on July 21.
Police met with witnesses before arresting the waiter, a 22-year-old man, this week.
He was released with a promise to appear in court at a later date.
HT: JettieG