Perth family shares restaurant nightmare

Published Jul 2, 2024, 8:00 PM

A Perth family has shared their restaurant nightmare, claiming they were served poison instead of cranberry juice. Two young girls and their mother were admitted to hospital after discovering the drink was concealed in a bottle of insect repellent. 

Form ore, James Carmody reports.

Marcus Lemon snapped this photo of citronella insect repellent. He says it had just been served to his daughters at a Perth restaurant after they had ordered cranberry juice.

Almost instantly, we started like shaking and like like my hands were tingling and my tummy was burning. It felt like somebody had put fire in your stomach.

Horrified. Mother Michelle also tasted the drink.

My girls took a cranberry juice and took a gulp and they both spat it out immediately on the table, And I said, what are you doing? And they said, it's not cranberry juice, it's poisonous.

By now, Marcus confronted restaurant staff, demanding to see where the drinks had come from.

It was a mosquito insecticide with a sort of citronella sort of base.

The family rushed to Perth Children's Hospital, and soon Michelle had to go over the road to Sir Charles Gardner herself.

I was burning, my stomach was burning, out of headache. I was feeling drowsy.

Getting home from hospital at one thirty am. Michelle is still feeling unwell today. The Lemons grateful their daughters are better. The Health Department says it's assisting the City of Netlands with an investigation, and the restaurant owner says he too is investigating what happened. The Lemon family want their experience to be a reminder to hospitality venues.

Pretty annoyed that something like this switch is quite simple to avoid can happen.

James Carmody, seven News

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