Restaurant serves oven cleaner to diners | A Current Affair

well everyone was excited for this family lunch but no one knew their fish and chips would come with a side of poison and a trip to hospital fish and chips it's a meal nearly all of us have and enjoy some of us are partial to a bit of salt others a slice of lemon and then there are those that love a dash of vinegar but beware because vinegar isn't always what you think it is it was instant burn for her it was horrific her reaction at this point I totally lost my voice I've put it on my tongue and my tongue is burning my tie it's like acid you then came running out and he said I'm Hospital straightaway you three Hospital now it's happened again in a different restaurant and you could be next the vinegar that isn't vinegar but a deadly poison every second that went by on a cellular level it was burning away at my internal organs it was to be one of those lovely big family get-togethers at a wonderful seafood restaurant by the sea it was a really happy time because it's very rare for our whole family to be together Lauren had organized the family of entered the coast bar and restaurant a place with a checkered history but more on that a little later because they're ordering lunch and Sylvia loves her fish and chips there she is mine and my beautiful nan she always loves to have vinegar on her efficient chips you just hungry vinegar over her fish and chips that's Nikki Sylvia's daughter anyway down the other end of the table grandparents Peter and Annie had ordered the fish and chips as well and we're about to tuck into their plate also doused in vinegar when drama started unfolding with Sylvia who'd already started eating the fright and the scare on her face because her mouth just immediately started burning straight away she was like what is this and she spat out she started crying the tears in her eyes these photos were taken hours later but her mouth and lips immediately went red and blistered with a scene developing a waiter rushes over so he brings out a new meal and he says okay free meal on us and she's my name is still crying and so should we I'm going what is this and then by that time you had dipped your finger in it yeah the scenes that went on my tongue looks like oh my goodness that can't be vinegar because immediately it's sort of numb no tingling no meanwhile Fran was sitting next to Annie and Peter who missed the commotion at the other end of the table and now seemed in distress after they two had begun eating are you guys okay and they said no something's on this food I've put it on my tongue and my tongue is burning my tie it's like acid and I said to Annie sitting beside me there's something wrong with this and I thought well I'll just taste it so I dabbed my finger in unfortunately put it on my tongue and burnt the tongue and played her in the minutes after putting this in your mouth what was going on with you physically well I suddenly got what his burning sensation in the throat and as I said then lips suddenly came up in blisters and and at that point we realized it was something seriously happening here the family summoned wait staff to the table what have you given us he goes back to the kitchen he comes back this time he goes he's pouring us drinks and he goes oh it's alcoholic sanitizer it's fine so he lied the table is breaking out into chaos something's going on over there something's going on here the waiter rushes back to the kitchen he comes out again and this time he goes oh I have to get you all to the hospital still not telling us what of us panic sets in and a family member forces his way into the kitchen and only then only then do we find out that it was oven grill cleaner needing to tell the hospital what they've consumed the family take photos that would make your toes curl and certainly your mouth burn not vinegar on their seafood but toxic oven cleaner it's a warning label plainly frightening corrosive to metal harmful if swallowed cause of severe burns store locked up it doesn't get much more hazardous and they've put it all over their food staff load sick and injured customers into their own cars and a convoy heads to nearby Gosford hospital on the New South Wales Central Coast leaving behind those who wisely chose not to have fish and chips that was the point of Tears I was so upset along with my sister my husband my brother we were all sort of left behind not knowing what was going on no man I've gone up to the triage and she couldn't even say her name she couldn't say her name because her tongue had swollen up and her lips and she's looking at me with fear because it's like I can't talk well I was burning in the throat at this point I totally lost my voice I could not make a sound at all now if you think you've heard all this before you're right yep we uncovered a similar vinegar stuff up on the Gold Coast this man almost killed me has maimed me for the rest of my life actually happened as tragic as they are they happen this restaurant owner accidentally gave oven cleaner instead of vinegar to treat Amanda Marie fields hiccup attack she was having at the table this is how it left her I could hear all the conversations and I could hear the doctor saying I doubt you make it said Amanda has endured eighty-three operations and had her stomach and esophagus removed and now it's happened again in another restaurant in another state where our latest vinegar victims in emergency were slowly discharged in a sick and sorry state while a non fish-and-chip eating family member went back to the restaurant the next day to demand some answers they offered my dad a measly $1,500 to hoping that that would just be shut it up really to stop the case right there that's for for people who landed up in hospital now with an uncertain future the day after it happened we didn't know what the repercussions were going to be Lauren started texting the manager wanting to find out why this happened she received a blunt text back from a law firm saying they were taking over and not to talk to the restaurant and then absolutely nothing from them since and it's all been stripped under the carpet and no one knows anything until now we just wanted to talk about the incident that happened here with the oven cleaner being placed on the fish and chips you're aware of that then is the manager or owner and a pleasant enough manager did come out it felt like the new boy was being thrown under the bus now wouldn't they just take it over I've only just come on board so no one's ever discussed about what happened with the oven cleaner with the I'm not aware of that knowing the fish and chips but I don't appreciate being bombarded with isn't it in the family who came here for lunch that day didn't appreciate being rushed aha I'd appreciate that I've only been here for less than a week okay so he walks off and comes back a little later with the name of the same lawyer that was supposed to be dealing with the family she hasn't even spoken to these people in seven months it was an act of negligence you don't hand someone a caustic substance and pass it off as vinegar I'm sure it was a mistake I'm sure it was an accident there are probably a lot of reasons why it happened that way but it shouldn't happen if you do that and you caused injury you are out commentating lawyer Sam Macedonia says victims can seek compensation and believes 1500 bucks is an insult $1500 for the lot is nowhere near sufficient in my personal opinion I think each of the people that were affected would be looking at five figures each of them five figures so how on earth could vinegar and oven cleaner get mixed up in kitchens well vinegar is basically a it's an antiseptic it's a natural antiseptic like many cafe and restaurant owners Kath Morrison from brisbin's bean on Dean uses natural vinegar to wipe down surfaces vinegar and water that we use in the clear spray bottle is for tables and anything that customers come in contact with but the clear vinegar should never be stored next to toxic chemicals like clear oven cleaner Kath even goes a step further in eliminating dangerous oven cleaner from food areas we use hot soapy water and then give it a we could rinse down with with hot water so we don't even use oven cleaners on those sorts of products simply for that reason that I just don't like having the product in our cafe and and I don't want things like that to happen in our cafe even the chemical manufacturer warns on the label not to decanter oven cleaner from the large container to avoid a mix-up but this didn't happen here they failed in their duty of care back at our restaurant and they have encountered other troubles recently having just copped $20,000 in fines and legal costs after two underage school girls reported to their teacher they were serving alcohol while doing work experience at the coast bar and restaurant and if the place looks familiar long before these owners this was a Guana joe's and she started a busy me she said she said to me aw did you know who I am and I said no no the infamous venue where former federal politician Belinda Neill allegedly threw at auntie after a long night there will have your bosses I will close this business down within three months I'll have the police down here every weekend to put pressure on you to close you down controversy it seems has never left this seaside diner nor that popular meal from the menu did you have the fish and chips you didn't have vinegar kaepa the salt Peter wishes he had because he now spends his days sucking on butter menthols but since then my voice has been crackly it's been broken and it's just not right even to this day oh yeah yeah even to this day my voice now is not what it used to be no way and I've got continual sore throats I've got a sore throat now so Nicky how was mum today she had to drink through a straw for about four or five days mentally she thinks about it an awful lot and anything that goes wrong with her stomach you know she's got a tummy ache whatever she says I just wonder if it was what I had and I just have to say well then we might never know that after pleading with the restaurant to resolve this matter and meet with the family they sent us a statement saying the New South Wales Food Authority investigation did not reveal any food contamination from a cleaning product but the food authority have issued a penalty notice to the business I would most strongly recommend that they take legal action it is a very clear-cut case it's it's something that they can't possibly lose so next time you order fish and chips with vinegar just hope they haven't got the bottles mixed up out back that's the worrying thing because you could happen again precisely the coast bar and restaurant denies any of the families food was contaminated with a cleaning product the state food authority is not permitted to say exactly why the penalty notice was issued but says the restaurant may elect to challenge this fine so the matter is yet to be finalized both statements are on our website

Channel: A Current Affair

Views: 1,421,889

Keywords: restaurant food poisoning, poison fish, Tracy Grimshaw, Tracey, food poisoning, restaurant mistakes, ACA, A Current Affair Australia, 9 News, Entertainment, 60 minutes, Interviews, restaurant poison, A Current Affair, Politics, 60 minutes australia, breaking news, fish and chips poison, nine news, poison chips, restaurant serves oven cleaner, Celebrity, 9news australia, True Crime, food poisoning story, australian news, eating oven cleaner, oven cleaner, 9news, ingesting poison

Id: x5isgkncGyY

Length: 13min 4sec (784 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 18 2019