Nightclub took DDs epipens

[anaphyl4xis]

My DD - 18 and a 1st year uni student - went to a nightclub last night and they refused to let her keep her epipens on her. They said if she needed them
She had to go to the medical room.

She was with a group of friends and had all paid to get in and the venue also refused to refund if they decided not to go in.

AIBU to be absolutely livid and to follow this up with the company.

For context my daughter has a life threatening allergy to nuts - but not peanuts.

bon Of course he has. But he has no idea how well trained the restaurant staff are. It doesn't matter what they say they can still be crap or want the sale.

If someone eats gluten they aren't (generally) blue lighted to hospital. It makes me ill but I can ride it out over a week.

Yes, I would definitely make a formal complaint and ask for their H&S policy in writing over this.
My DC is a type 1 diabetic and has to carry an insulin pen, finger pricker etc but also wears a Libre so can't go through metal detector machines. Last weekend at a gig the security staff tried to make them go through the detector machine until I intervened and explained why not - as soon as I said the word Libre they backed off and this is how it should be. DC is ND so doesn't handle questioning well. In order to prevent medical equipment being confiscated we both carry a letter from their diabetes nurse explaining that meds, hypo treatments and equipment are life saving and that they must remain with them at all times. The letter also states that to remove these items is contrary to disability law. Does your daughter have a letter @anaphyl4xis ? If not then get one.
In this situation I would have expected to have been given a letter detailing their policy and a written receipt of the items confiscated and actually be shown where the items are being stored. We've never had any of our diabetes stuff taken at any venue.

I feel like the injection spiking hasn't actually been proved - I'm going to keep looking for links. The report above was just that a student had seen reports and started a petition. I've seen lots of self reported stuff.

People carrying controlled drugs do need to be able to prove they have them legitimately

What do you mean? Plenty of people will carry around prescription medication without also carrying round the proof they were prescribed it to present whenever they're asked.

I'd definitely complain. That's shocking. It's hard to move in a night club. No way you'd get to medical room in time x

Get your daughter to follow it up, this is a serious incident waiting to happen. If someone collapsed in a nightclub you'd assume they had drank too much (or taken something), taking her epipen off her puts her in serious danger, it's ridiculous. Not the same thing exactly but one of my close friends from uni is diabetic, in all the years we have been out to clubs etc, including travelling to other countries together and having nights out there she has never had her pens removed from her in any situation, nor would she have let them.

Get their head office emailed and find out exactly what their stance is, was it an ott bloke on security or is there a policy on this?

Google needle spiking or injection spiking.

Epipen devices are being used & the police reports (for needle / injection spiking specifically) are in the thousands; numbers have risen so sharply that it was literally discussed in parliament this January. It’s also not UK specific & this type of spiking is being reported all over Europe as well.

The police have been trying to raise awareness & asking people to come forward as quickly as possible as the drugs dissipate so quickly.

But even those on this thread for EpiPens to be removed from carriers are not suggesting anyone is being injected with Adrenaline. EpiPen users are not carrying a dangerous controlled drug.

I remember not wanting my parents to get involved in certain situations when I was 25, never mind 18, and looking back, they were 100% right. I brushed things off and didn't want to make a scene about things that, looking back, needed to have been addressed. I absolutely did not have the maturity or confidence to recognise when certain situations were wrong, and my parents did. I thought I was Miss Mature, that I had everything under control and it was all cool but it really wasn't. I'm so glad my parents didn't just leave me to paddle my own canoe once I turned 18. I needed them to encourage me to take certain things seriously for much longer after that. Op, you're 100% right in pursuing this and I would do the same.

I would absolutely contact them. If only to help future patrons! They could be responsible for a needless death and I'm betting they'd not want to find themselves in that situation.

I did find this though inews.co.uk/news/focus-reports-injection-spiking-detracts-broader-safety-threats-faced-young-women-experts-1265119

This is what her epi pen looks like for those who haven't seen one

Thanks @Coraline353 I have to register to read it but the start suggested the reports were detracting from wider issues? I'm quite sceptical about it all tbh.

cakeorwine
FFS - do you know how hard it is dealing with food allergies?
It's hard to trust restaurants, to get them to take it seriously as an adult, let alone as a 16 year old.

Must be eating at different places to you. I've been out a lot with someone who can't eat gluten and they take it very seriously everywhere I've been.

Am I actually reading this right? You're actually telling someone with food allergies they are wrong based on the fact that you sometimes eat out with someone who can't eat gluten?!?! 🙈🙈🙈

If not, the clubs ask for everyone’s ID.
perhaps the customer should have to go to an office, have their ID photocopied and their photo taken and a document with the name of the device and serial number etc.

You mean like suspected criminals do, before they're taken off to the cells and have their shoelaces taken away?

Schools hold them because the child is a minor.

No but tampered with Epipens are being used to "spike" with other drugs

No. Like an adult who wants to take something into a club that the club wants to carefully manage.

Thank you for that last paragraph. I'm a hell of a lot older than 18, but I'm tired of being the one who always has to be a wet sponge because of my allergy. I've been to parties, weddings etc where I just haven't bothered to eat because it's too much faff finding someone who knows or can find out whether what's on offer contains what I'm allergic to. I didn't have the allergy when I was 18, but I would certainly have struggled at that age.

Yes I agree - I'm not suggesting I overrule her view and make a big fuss on her behalf.

My question was probably worded badly I should have said 'are we being unreasonable to think this is unacceptable and to make a complaint'

Here's an example of someone that died because of delays in finding his epipen.

Epipens need to be on the allergy sufferers at ALL times.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/4319486/school-boy-died-allergic-reaction-11-minutes-find-epipen/amp/

That people are seriously suggesting it would be legitimate for a nightclub to remove a time sensitive life saving medical device to a medical room is just blowing my mind. NO.

OP you need to complain. Don't listen to the idiots on this thread.

yanbu and this is ridiculous. Why at 18 do people think suddenly children or young adults should be left to do things themselves! If I was I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today. Now is the time to help teach you’d dd how to stand up for herself and her rights, good for you!
My DH has diabetes and we have been together since our teenage years he has never had his pens taken from him ever. When travelling we always take a Doctors letter in case but again never needed it. To expect someone going into anaphylactic shock to get to a medical room which could be on a completely different floor is outrageous.

Thanks that's really helpful.

It's a proper disgrace and I'd email the establishment, not call. You need that paper trail. I carry epi pens and I wont even be separated from them in hospital. They stay by me at all times. The time it would take to find the person who has the keys to the drugs cabinet, could cost me my life. Same with your daughter in the nightclub, trying to find her way to the medical room and explain who she is and what's going on , it's wasting vital time. She would have injected herself several times over in that length of time.

I don't think some people on here understand the worry food allergies cause.

It really doesn't help that so many people 'claim' allergies and serious conditions when they're just preferences. By all means avoid gluten if you find it might make you feel a bit bloated if you over do it, but don't appropriate the challenges and fears that people who actually have coeliac disease live with permanently.

I also think that many people who haven't ever even seen an epipen have a very vague idea of what one might be like and thus use it as shorthand, as a comparator for anything with a sharp stabby point - so any violent attempts to spike somebody in an assault with any kind of device are described as 'like a kind of epipen' - which then gets reported as 'an epipen'.