A teenager “almost died” after sipping a drink while on holiday in Malia. Emily Earle, 19, was on a girls holiday to Crete, Greece with four of her friends when they went to a party.
But after two hours Emily was having her third drink when she started to feel very ill – she fell asleep on the table at 5.30pm before becoming thirsty. A few hours later after going back to their hotel, Emily was struggling to breathe and falling in and out of consciousness, and was taken to the hospital by ambulance, she said.
She says doctors have confirmed she swallowed drugs, and she thinks a party partner must have slipped something into one of her drinks. Her worried mother had to fly out to the resort and take her home.
Emily, a medical student from King’s College London, said: “This was a terrible experience which was extremely traumatic for me, my family and my friends. I almost lost my life. I was hypersensitive to the heat and was the party was really busy so I didn’t drink much.
“I knew something was very wrong because suddenly I felt very out of it and I couldn’t remember things. I was scared to think what would happen if I was separated from my friends. Shortly after I back to our hotel, I was in a critical condition because I was struggling to breathe – I got worse very quickly.
“My friends and family were scared. They thought they were losing me. My memory is sketchy from about 5.30pm and I don’t remember much after leaving the party. I’m not careful, but he can happen to anyone, no matter how careful you are.
“It’s very scary. You feel like you have no control – all your options have been taken away from you.”
Emily and her friends went out on the 23rd of June. They were on the Malia strip when they bought tickets for a party. At the event, Emily says she had Malibu and Coke, and sex on the beach cocktail, before starting on vodka and pineapple. She suddenly felt drunk and began to fall asleep.
She said: “I couldn’t understand it – none of my drinks were strong.”
Emily’s friends got her some food, and she had two BLTs, a burger and ice cream, but she was still ravenous, and very thirsty. “That was very out of character”, she said, “I would normally be good after one BLT – they were huge.”
Emily’s friends took her back to the hotel around 7.30pm. Despite their vigilance, she wandered off in search of a toilet while they were waiting for a taxi. They found her within a few minutes in a hotel room with a group of boys.
Back at their hotel, they put her to bed and her condition quickly deteriorated, and she lay on the floor. Emily’s hands and feet were frozen to the touch and her skin was red and blotchy.
Her breathing was shallow and fast and she couldn’t feel her legs or open her eyes, and she was losing consciousness. The hotel staff called an ambulance.
Emily’s family was confronted by her terrified friends – and they all thought she might die, Emily says. She was taken to Herculanium University Hospital around 9pm, where she was put on a drip.
She woke up the next morning feeling fine and was told that drugs had been found in her stomach, but doctors could not say which drugs without a full toxicology report to be requested from the police. She does not know what other treatment she received at the hospital because of the language barrier.
Emily’s mother arrived at the resort in the early afternoon, and the group flew back to the UK. Emily, from Crawley, West Sussex, said: “I really have no idea how it happened – we were so careful. We are very sensible and we did everything as a group. We were together all the time.
“I’m very aware of the risks and very careful. A boy bought me a drink when we arrived and I didn’t touch him. If I had to put a drink down for any reason I wouldn’t go back to him.
“My hand was over my drinks when I wasn’t drinking it and I even took my drinks to the toilet with me. I can only imagine that someone nudged me and someone else slipped something in when I was distracted – the party was really crowded.
“Everyone was searched on the way in, but if someone wants to bring drugs in they will find a way. The most frightening part for me is the intention of whoever did this – was it just for a laugh or because they wanted me to go back to their hotel room?”
Because of the language barrier, Emily was unable to find out much about her hospital stay, and it stopped her from reporting the incident to the police. She said: “A woman in the bed next to me said this is very common. We can’t prevent things like this from happening, but you can take steps to reduce the damage if it happens to you or someone. of your friends
“You can’t be too careful. It’s really important to stick with your friends. Don’t take a drink from someone else and don’t leave your drinks unattended. Stay in your group and be careful
“Don’t drink anywhere near your limit: this can make it easier for someone to catch your attention. If you don’t feel right tell someone straight away. Watch out for unusual behavior from each other.
“If someone is acting out of character stick to them and get them to somewhere safe as fast as you can, because they could be taken. .”