Food Poisoning from SYD T2 Qantas Lounge?

JohnK · #1 (**permalink**) 29th October 2007, 10:31 PM

I had some severe food poisoning today and I suspect it was from the T2 Qantas Lounge although I cannot be certain as I am not a doctor.

Arrived back from ARM just after 1:00pm today and as I came back on the earlier flight I had time to go upstairs to the Qantas Lounge. So I leave my bag waiting at the carousel and head through security to the Qantas Lounge.

They had on offer a couple of tuna and lettuce baguettes sliced into smaller portions. I took a few of these portions plus some sort of egg plant and capsicum wrap. At around 1:45pm I head back downstairs to collect my bag and head outside to the taxi queue. After a couple of minutes in the taxi I started to feel really sick and had a stomach ache. Got home around 2:15pm and took some Mylanta and lay down on the bed.

By around 2:45pm I felt very queasy, my head was spinning and all my muscles aching. No need to go into details but the next 2-3 hours were absolute torture. I have only started to drink some water and eat some dry biscuits in the last half hour or so.

I feel somewhat better now and I am due to go to NAA and MRZ tomorrow morning. I have accommodation booked for tomorrow night and also a car booked. I don't want this little trip to be jeopardised because of food poisoning. I have travel insurance anyway which could possibly cover the trip if something goes wrong between now and tomorrow morning.

Thinking back to the time in the lounge the canned tuna did not look very fresh. I hope it was only me affected and did not happen to anyone else. If I am mistaken in any way I do apologise but I don't think I am wrong. I am now very sceptical about eating anything in a lounge that has been exposed out in the open for long periods of time. How long was the tuna out in the open?

Very scary experience! Should I provide Qantas feedback?

Mal · #2 (**permalink**) 29th October 2007, 10:37 PM

I would provide feedback to Qantas, but not as a "you poisoned me" type feedback. but more of an advisory to them if they see similar cases.

I'm not a Doctor, but for you to feel that bad after about an hour, either you ingested something bad much earlier, or you took a huge dosage of bacteria.

What did you have for Brekkie? Could that have been the culprit?

oz_mark · #3 (**permalink**) 29th October 2007, 11:10 PM

I am not a doctor, but I would concur with Mal's remarks on the matter. In particular feedback as a factual statement to Qantas might be worthwhile, althouh they may not have been at fault. Having said that, I have known a couple of friends to have some startling reactions to tuna.

JohnK · #4 (**permalink**) 29th October 2007, 11:28 PM

I would not be aggresive to Qantas with feedback. Just as you mentioned Mal with a question if anyone else has been affected.

I have only had junk food in the last couple of days. Again I am not pointing any fingers but the tuna looked stale, off colour and did not taste fantastic. Not sure what the problem was but my stomach did not even attempt to digest the tuna. You just need to be really careful with any type of fish. A similar thing happened to my parents a few years ago.

Anyway I am feeling a lot better now.

littl_flier · #5 (**permalink**) 29th October 2007, 11:37 PM

Sorry to hear you've had a rough day JohnK. Like others have suggested, I would offer some feedback to QF in the manner you discussed. I would imagine being in T2 that the turnover of food wouldn't be as high as T3 so even if the advice only caused QF to serve smaller portions and turn them over quicker, it would be a good thing. If it was caused by the seafood, then if could open QF to some bad publicity if quite a few people got struck down at once.

Enjoy you're trip tomorrow. Hope the SC's all post how you want them to.

JohnK · #6 (**permalink**) 29th October 2007, 11:58 PM

This description from Drhull sounds very similar to the symptoms I experienced.

Quote:

Originally Posted by drhull

Gastroenteritis with paresthesias - nerve tingling - are the hallmarks of toxin-related seafood poisoning which also occurs without fever. Scombroid fish poisoning can be caused by tuna (including canned tuna), mackerel, bonito, skipjack, or mahi mahi. It is an explosive illness with flushing, headache, dizziness, nausea, cramps, and severe diarrhea. Symptoms usually resolve within 4 hours. Severe cases are treated with antihistamines or bronchodilators for wheezing or asthmatic patients.

I should have gone to a doctor to at least have an idea of what may have caused it.

smithym · #7 (**permalink**) 30th October 2007, 07:22 AM

JohnK, you really should let the QP know of this. From what you have stated it does sound highly suspicious of food poisoning, especially if you had abdominal cramps, vomiting and diarrhoeafollowing eating those things from the buffet. The QP needs to know so it can do a quality assurance check of their food and how they store it. A few months ago I saw some cases of a similar nature where 4 different people presented to a health facility complaining of similar complaints as you had. On further investigation it was established that they all ate a the same facility and when we notified them they did a review of their facilities and it turned out that they had a faulty fridge and as such it was effecting the quality of their food supply. So let the QP know.

Keep your fluids up, get an electrolyte drink and if you still have the same symptoms this morning pop up to your closest hospital as you may need some intervention.

JohnK · #8 (**permalink**) 5th November 2007, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smithym

JohnK, you really should let the QP know of this.

I did mention my experience to the staff in the Qantas lounge last Tuesday morning 30 October. At that point there were no other complaints and it may well have been just me.

Anyway I have provided QF with feedback and I am waiting for their response. It will be interesting to hear if anyone else was affected.

codash1099 · #9 (**permalink**) 5th November 2007, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnK

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I did mention my experience to the staff in the Qantas lounge last Tuesday morning 30 October. At that point there were no other complaints and it may well have been just me.

"No one else has reported any problem" is a fairly standard business response in order to deflect any responsibilty. Only a more detailed investigation would have revealed any widespread problem. After all, not everybody would associate the problem and the source and of those, not many would actually complain.

Mal · #10 (**permalink**) 5th November 2007, 05:52 PM

Yep, in this risk adverse environment, a company would be stupid to say "Oh, yes, now we realise there is a correlation". Way too easy to be opened up to litigation/health issues.

Whether it was a 24hour stomatch flu thing, food poisoning from the lounge, or something else you ate, you'll never really know. Perhaps your body has gained some extra antibodies to help in a similar case in the future.

I presume all is good healthwise with you now. At least you didn't need hospitalisation and/or experience other serious consequences.