BUYER BEWARE!!! DO NOT EAT AT THE WHARFSIDE EATERY IN VICTORIA. They nearly killed me with their negligence by ignoring/not paying attention to a nut allergy I told them about, then charged me for the dessert that nearly killed me and are refusing to pay $761 in lifesaving medical bills for the ambulance I had to call out and the hospital I had to be taken to in a life-threatening emergency.
On the evening of Saturday September 6th I went for a meal in the Wharfside Eatery, 1208 Wharf St, Victoria. I am British and had moved to Nanaimo. A friend of mine had been visiting me for 3 months and it was our goodbye meal as he was leaving on the Tuesday, so we decided to spend the day in Victoria. The service wasn't great - we both ordered appetisers, but had to wait nearly an hour for them. I ordered the smoked salmon trilogy. When it came it looked like there were nuts on the plate, so I summoned our waiter Chris and asked him. It was difficult to get his attention and again I had to wait quite a while before he was in the vicinity to ask. I explained that I had an allergy to all nuts except peanuts, and a very dangerous and serious anaphylactic reaction to walnuts that could kill me. He went to the kitchen to ask the chef and check, and came back and said they were just capers. My friend also tried one to be sure.
Satisfied that Chris was well aware of my dangerous and life-threatening nut allergy, my friend and I went on to order the chocolate mousse cake dessert to share between us. After a few bites I was aware that I was crunching into something, but assumed that it was probably the chocolate chips on top. However, a few seconds later I noticed a swelling and itching in my mouth. I said to my friend (also called Chris) that I thought there were nuts in the dessert. Once again the waiter Chris was nowhere to be seen when he was needed and so I had to explain the situation to another waiter, who said he would go to kitchen and check with the chef. In the meantime I had to go to the washroom and saw in the mirror that my tongue had lumps on it. My throat and ears were also itching. When I returned to the restaurant I took 2 benadryl anti-allergy tablets that I always carry with me as I already knew that the dessert must contain nuts. After another long wait the other waiter returned and said: "If you have a nut allergy, then you really shouldn't be eating this dessert." However, unfortunately it was too late. I asked this waiter if the dessert had walnuts in it and said that if it did, then he needed to call me an ambulance straight away as they would spark an anaphylactic reaction. He said no, it had peanuts, pecans, almonds and tree nuts in it. I asked him if tree nuts could mean walnuts and he said no, that was just a general term to describe the rest of the nuts in the dessert. I said: "Are you sure? " and he said yes. Our waiter Chris then arrived with the bill and I couldn't believe that he'd had the nerve to charge me for the dessert that had caused me an allergic reaction and which he'd given me negligently, and as events turned out, was to nearly kill me! I complained and he took the dessert off the bill, but I couldn't believe that this hadn't been done automatically.
I left the restaurant with my friend, but on the way back started to feel very drowsy. After about 15 - 20 minutes of driving I suddenly realized that my lips had swelled up horrendously like I'd had a bunch of collagen injections all at once. I had also developed a smoker's cough and was itching all over, and I was struggling to breathe. I said to my friend in my drowsy state: "Something is seriously wrong." He'd never encountered me having an anaphylactic attack before and said: "I'm sure you'll be fine." By now it had really hit me and I told him no, I think I've eaten walnuts and I'm going to die, and I told him to pull into the gas station we were approaching right away and call an ambulance. He said we passed a sign to a hospital a while back and he would take me back there. Somehow in my drowsy state I was compos mentis enough to realize that I was on a time bomb though and as a foreigner, if he got lost trying to find it, it could be too late. I said: "No, just pull into the gas station and call an ambulance now." By now my heart was pounding and I was really scared. Chris took one look at me, realized I was serious and did as I asked. He rushed into the gas station and the next thing I knew came out again with the attendant who was on the phone to 911 emergency.By now I could hardly breathe and felt like I was slowly losing consciousness. I said to Chris: "Please don't let me fall asleep or I might not wake up" and I started screaming cos I was so terrified. I vaguely remember some other people who were in the gas station asking me if I was all right and I said no, I can't breathe, help me please, " but they just stood there staring at me obviously not knowing what to do.
I scrabbled around in my bag and somehow managed to find my benadryl and swallow 2 more with a glass of water that Chris gave me. At that moment the ambulance pulled up and just as they arrived I suddenly felt my ability to breathe come back a bit. The ambulance men put me on a stretcher and took me into the ambulance. They put an oxygen mask on me and pulled up my sleeve to put a needle in my arm. I said to them: "Before you give me adrenalin I've already taken a load of benadryl, so please be careful." Then I started to shake violently, I couldn't stop and my teeth kept chattering. They said it was my body's own adrenalin kicking in. They also told me that the drowsiness I'd felt was me nearly slipping into a coma. My friend gave them the bottle of benadryl and they said I'd already taken 4x the recommended dose, but they still needed to keep the needle in my arm in case I needed further medication. They also asked me for my care card. I said all I had was my Alberta one I was British. Again Chris found this and I gave it to them, assuming I was covered by it. They then rushed me straight to the hospital we had passed on on the way, where I was kept in for observation for a couple of hours. Eventually the shaking subsided and I was released. My friend and I drove back to Nanaimo, arriving at about 4am. We were v. shaken and his last Saturday night in Canada was ruined - hardly the celebration we'd planned.
For the next few days I was in agony from the damage the nuts did as they passed through me. It felt like severe burning in my wind and food pipes as if I'd drunk strong shots of alcohol, and it hurt to breathe and eat. The day after the incident I called the Wharfside Eatery and notified them of what had happened. I reiterated several times how serious both the incident and their negligence was, how much dessert I'd eaten because I was sure that the waiter knew about my allergy, and how scared I'd been because I thought I was going to die. I was told that the incident would be reported to the managers and the owner, Maria Hernandez. I left my tel no, but didn't hear anything back and had to call the restaurant several times at long distance charges. Initially it was shrugged off somewhat and I was told that people had lots of food allergies, and how could they cater for all of them? I said that nuts was the most common one and in England all menu items that contained it were labelled as so I pointed out that when I'd mentioned my nut allergy at the Cactus Club Cafe a few weeks earlier they'd prepared a whole special allergy free meal for me as an extra precaution. I was told that an investigation was being carried out into the incident and disciplinary action would be taken, also that they usually took notice of allergies if they were mentioned and that somehow I'd slipped through the loop, but no compensation was offered. I was told that I would be receiving a call from the owner soon.
Eventually I received a call from the owner, Maria Hernandez, who repeated the above. I said I felt strongly that I should get some compensation for what I had suffered the fact that my friend's last Saturday night and few days in Canada had been totally ruined. She seemed quite opposed to this and asked what I expected. I suggested that she refund me for the meal, but again couldn't believe that it was up to me to suggest this like when we were billed for the dessert that had caused so much grief. Maria agreed grudgingly to do this and said she would refund my credit card with the $54 we had paid and that this was the easiest method for her, rather than sending me a cheque. I gave her my credit card no and she said she would pass it on to her accountant.
Weeks went by and I constantly checked my credit card bill online for a refund, but it didn't appear, necessitating yet more long distance calls to Victoria to chase it up. Eventually Maria called and left a message on my cell phone and said that the refund had had to be put through manually because we had paid cash on the night, not visa - clearly a delaying/stalling policy because she was well aware of this when she suggested refunding the amount back on to my visa card. Yet more weeks went by and still the refund didn't appear on my credit card bill, involving me in more unnecessary grief and distress further long distance calls to the Wharfside. Maria called and left another message on my cell phone, saying that it would show up soon and also telling me to call the restaurant and leave my address as she "wanted to send me something". I did so - still nothing, so I called again and was told by a waitress that a cheque had been sent which she had personally mailed herself. A few days later the cheque arrived, along with a letter admitting liability and "apologizing for any discomfort caused" (what an understatement!), together with a measly $25 gift voucher, which would hardly cover the cost of an appetiser in the grossly overpriced restaurant, and was clearly nothing more than a pathetic excuse for a goodwill gesture and more of an inducement to go back into there and spend more money - as if!
As far as I was concerned, however, this was an end of the matter until out of the blue I received a hospital bill for $231 just before Thanksgiving. I immediately called the Wharfside and left a message for Maria about it. I asked her to call me and confirm that the restaurant would pay it. Despite making several phone calls, I received no response and consequently spent the whole of the Thanksgiving weekend worrying about it. As soon as the holiday was over I called the 1 800 no on the bill and said I thought I was covered by my Alberta health care card. They hadn't seen this, only the ambulance had, which is apparently a totally separate operation. They checked it out and called me back to say that my Alberta health care card wasn't valid any more because I had left Alberta a while back. They also told me that I would probably be receiving another bill from the ambulance service. I called the 1 800 no they gave me to find out and was told that I would indeed be receiving an ambulance bill for $530, and that I hadn't received this yet because it took a couple of months to generate. I explained to both the hospital and ambulance billing departments what had happened, but was told that despite this, the recipient of the services was liable for the payments and that if I didn't pay, then collections would come after me, not the restaurant and that this would affect my credit rating in Canada. Talk about grossly unfair!
I called Maria Hernandez several more times to no avail - I was constantly told she was unavailable or in a meeting etc. I finally got hold of her and she said that she wouldn't be paying my medical bills. She was cold and abrupt, and said that she wasn't prepared to have any further discussions about the matter and that I shouldn't call again. I asked her why when it was the restaurant's fault and they had already admitted liability. She said because I hadn't called the ambulance from the restaurant. I said did this mean that she was now trying to deny the reason why I called the ambulance, but she wouldn't continue the conversation and put the phone down on me. I tried calling again twice and saying how distressed I was at Maria's attitude and how unfair it was, but the waitress I spoke to was practically laughing at me, it was unbelievable. The ambulance billing department also called her and she told them that she wasn't prepared to pay the bill because I'd taken benadryl in the restaurant before I'd left - her 2nd pathetic excuse.
Maria knows full well that the incident was the restaurant's fault and they have admitted liability verbally several times and through their refund cheque, gift voucher and letter. The reason I didn't call the ambulance from the restaurant is a) because the waiter I talked to on the night assured me that the chocolate mousse cake didn't contain walnuts despite the fact that I insisted that if it did, then he should call me an ambulance right away and b) because the 2 benadryl capsules I took in the restaurant temporarily allayed the reaction, but as these weren't sufficient to counter an anaphylactic reaction, it flared up again on the way back to Nanaimo as the nuts passed through me. Both the ambulance and the hospital can confirm that the reason for the emergency call out was due to an anaphylactic reaction to nuts in a dessert eaten at the Wharfside.
I subsequently wrote to all the newspapers in Nanaimo and Victoria with my story, and contacted both the Better Business Bureau and other business practices associations in BC to try to get help and assistance - all to no avail. I then contacted the Lawyer Referral Service, who recommended a great lawyer (Bob Leverman) who wrote 2 letters to the Wharfside restaurant reminding them that they had already admitted liability and to try to get them to pay the medical costs they owed me. The Wharfside ignored both letters. I have kept both the ambulance and hospital billing departments constantly informed of my actions to try to recoup the costs, but have simply been told that I should pay the bills and try to claim the costs back later from the guilty party. However, I have other serious health and mobility problems - MS symptoms that have been caused by heavy metal poisoning and I have been paying out a fortune for chelation therapy that is not covered by BC health care: over $8000 since I arrived in Canada in February. My credit card is totally maxed out and I cannot afford to pay either the hospital or the ambulance bill.
I am at my wits' end what to do. The Wharfside nearly killed me and have now left me with $761 of medical bills for their negligence that I can't afford, and which will affect my credit rating in Canada if I don't pay up. I could have died from the anaphylactic reaction they caused me - you read and hear about such cases on the news all the time. How can they be so cruel, heartless, unprofessional and be allowed to get away with such behaviour? BUYER BEWARE - DON'T PUT YOUR LIFE OR THE LIFE OF YOUR RELATIVES OR CHILDREN IN THEIR HANDS, STAY AWAY FROM THIS RESTAURANT!!!
Debbie
NANAIMO, British Columbia
Canada
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