Health Minister Brad Hazzard apologises to drink spiking victim for treatment at Northern Beaches Hospital
A northern beaches teenager says she wants to raise awareness of drink spiking and the importance of getting tested after she was targeted on a night out in Manly.
Manly
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A teenage girl who believes her drink was spiked with a ‘date rape’ drug at a pub in Manly claims she was “shamed” by hospital staff who refused to test her for drugs and questioned whether she was just drunk.
The official advice from police and NSW Health is to get tested immediately if drink spiking is suspected because there’s only a short window in which to detect certain drugs in the body.
The 19-year-old from Collaroy Plateau, who does not want to be named, said she and her mum want to raise awareness of drink spiking and the importance of getting a drug test.
It comes as drink spiking has become a major issue in the UK.
Last month thousands of women came out to protest and boycotted bars and clubs across 45 cities to demand action and better communication between police and hospitals to ensure that physical evidence is gathered quickly.
The northern beaches teen said better testing and reporting of the issue was needed to find out the true extent of the problem in this country.
The youngster, who believes her drink was spiked on Australia Day night, had two raspberry vodkas and had not finished her second, when she suddenly became inexplicably and violently ill.
“I felt very sick, very fast and I vomited in public,” she said.
“I immediately knew something was wrong. I had never felt like that before. It was really scary.”
She said her vision became blurred, she collapsed outside and began convulsing and slipping in and out of consciousness.
The girl’s parents, who arrived at the scene after being alerted to what was happening, said the manager and security guard were so worried they called Triple-0.
“The security guard was saying it looked like my daughter had been spiked with GHB and Rohypnol,” the mum said. “It was incredibly frightening.”
On assessing her, paramedics decided she needed to go to Northern Beaches Hospital for treatment.
However, by the time she arrived she had started to feel better.
“It was very weird, I began to recover quite quickly,” the teenager, a uni student, said.
Convinced she had been spiked, she asked for a drug test but claims she was “shamed and intimidated” by staff at the hospital, who said drink spiking was rare and was usually just a case of too much alcohol and therefore there was no point in testing for it.
When her mother asked how best to care for her sick daughter if they did not know what was in her system, a nurse allegedly told her to go and get her daughter McDonald’s on the way home.
Northern Beaches Hospital would not comment on those specific allegations.
“I was so shocked by how I was treated at the hospital,” the victim said. “I felt they were trying to intimidate and shame me out of being tested.
“She made me feel quite stupid for asking.
‘It made everything so much worse. It was traumatising.
“How can these people be caught if tests are never done?
“I’ve heard from so many girls who have had their drinks spiked. It is under reported and under tested.”
The following day the girl and her mother went to police to report the drink spiking incident and were told to meet two female police officers at Northern Beaches Hospital to get tests.
The mother said her daughter was asked in a semi-public area whether she had been sexually assaulted and when she said no, was made to feel like she was wasting their time.
She added that a senior staff member then arrived and asked why they had come back in as they had been told last night the hospital would not test for spiking.
After the police officers made some calls, staff agreed to test the teenager.
However, no drugs were found in her system. GHB disappears from the body within 12 hours. Rohypnol can still be present for five days, depending on the amount taken.
The girl believes if the test was done on the night of the incident, there may have been proof.
She suspects her drink may have been spiked by a man around her age who started chatting to her in the queue outside the pub and was behind her when she ordered her drink.
She later realised that at the time she had fallen ill, the man had tracked her down on Instagram and sent messages asking whether she wanted to meet outside and go on somewhere else.
“I’ve always been wary when I go out in Manly because there are some older men that hang around and prey on younger women,” she said.
“I was cautious about how many drinks I have, but I never thought it would be men our age that would try and do this sort of thing.
“Now I am hyper aware. I’ve got very paranoid.
“I’ve even asked bar staff to throw two drinks down the sink since then because I was worried someone could have slipped something in them.”
A spokesman for Northern Beaches Hospital said it had conducted a review into the care the patient received and had been working with staff to ensure there is better communication about the drug testing processes in the future.
In a letter from Health Minister Brad Hazzard he apologised for the girl’s experience in the hospital and said staff would be better educated on what to do.
“I am advised that there are hospital protocols for collecting blood and urine samples for forensic evidence which require police supervision if a criminal matter is suspected,” Mr Hazzard wrote.
“As a result of your family’s experience, the Nurse Unit Manager for the emergency department is working with the local police branch to clarify these processes and ensure they are followed in the future.”
Mr Hazzard said that Northern Beaches Hospital CEO Andrew Newton also said the Nurse Unit Manager had arranged for staff education to be provided to ensure others do not have a similar experience.
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