The waiter described the start of his illness as a scene from The Exorcist. "In the morning, my tummy started to ache. I went to the toilet, but I didn't think much of it, so I went to work. Later that afternoon, I had to go to the toilet again. On my way out, I started throwing up and throwing up. I couldn't stop, I was like the girl in The Exorcist. That's when my colleagues told me it must be because of the wedding," he said.
The regional ministry of health is investigating the incident as a food poisoning outbreak. The guests started feeling unwell from Saturday night, a few hours after the wedding. Some only got the first symptoms on Sunday morning.
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In some cases, they required an ambulance to take them to hospital, because all members of the household were too unwell to drive.
According to sources, the waiter Sur has spoken to is not the only employee who got ill. The other worker was admitted to a private hospital in Benalmádena on Saturday and remained there until Tuesday.
Were they allowed to eat from the food at the wedding reception? Yes, as this is part of a practice known as the 'staff buffet'. The two main courses from the event's menu were served there: a prawn risotto and meat with hollandaise sauce.
The waiter said that the only thing he had eaten at the wedding was the beef. He ate it at dinner on Saturday and began to feel unwell on Sunday. That day he went to a health centre and, as his condition worsened during the night, he went to the A&E department at the Clínico the following day, where he remained under observation for 24 hours until he was transferred to a ward on Tuesday.
The employee initially had a 39.5C fever, but he has managed to get it down. "The doctors say that's a good sign," the worker said, although the diarrhoea continues, which does concern the medical staff.
The regional ministry of health has recorded 40 cases, all mild, and stated that it has no record of any hospital admissions linked to the Estival Torrequebrada wedding.
Treatment
The waiter is not just showing the typical symptoms of a stomach bug or food poisoning: he has an inflamed bowel. The doctors have administered three antibiotics as well as Primperan, an antiemetic that reduces the likelihood of the person taking it vomiting, relaxes the digestive tract, increases the tone of the lower oesophageal sphincter and enhances gastric contractions to facilitate bowel movements.
In addition, he has been receiving an IV drip since he was admitted to the Clínico on Monday. "I haven't eaten since Saturday night. I'm afraid of anything I haven't cooked myself," he said.
He said that the hospital staff had also carried out tests to try to shed light on his case and be able to administer a specific treatment. For the time being, the investigation into this suspected outbreak of food poisoning remains in the hands of the regional health authority, which has not yet reported any new developments.