Malia Crete: British teenager, 19, 'nearly dies' after drink spiked in Greece holiday hotspot during night out with friends
A 19-year-old teenager “nearly died” while on holiday in Malia, Greece, after her drink was spiked.
Emily Earle was on a girls holiday with four of her friends when they headed to a party. But after two hours Emily was sipping her third drink when she started feeling very unwell - falling asleep on the table at just 5.30pm before becoming very 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 rushed to hospital in an ambulance, she said. She said doctors confirmed she had swallowed drugs, and she thinks a fellow party-goer must have slipped something into one of her drinks.
Her worried mum had to fly out to the resort and bring her back to the UK. Emily, a medical student from King's College London, said: "This was a horrible experience which was really traumatic for me, my family and my friends. I nearly lost my life.
"I was wary of the heat and the party was extremely busy so I didn't drink much. I knew something was very wrong because I suddenly felt very out of it and couldn't remember things.”
She added: "I dread to think what could have happened if I had become separated from my friends. Shortly after getting back to our hotel I was in a critical condition because I was struggling to breathe - I deteriorated very fast.
"My friends and family were terrified. They thought they were losing me.”
Emily and her friends were on the Malia strip on Wednesday June 26 when they bought tickets for a party. At the event, Emily says she had a Malibu and Coke, and a sex on the beach cocktail, before starting a vodka and pineapple. She felt really drunk suddenly and began falling asleep.
She said: "I just couldn't understand it - none of my drinks had been strong." Emily's friends got her some food, and she had two BLTs, a burger and an ice-cream, but was still ravenous and very thirsty.
She added: "That was very out of character. I'd usually be fine after one BLT - they were massive."
Emily's friends took her back to the hotel around 7.30pm. Despite their vigilance she wandered off searching for a toilet while they waited for a taxi.
They found her within a couple of minutes in a hotel room with a group of boys. Back at their hotel they put her to bed and her conditioned deteriorated fast, and she lay on the floor.
Emily's hands and feet were freezing to touch and her skin red and blotchy. Her breathing was shallow and rapid and she couldn't feel her legs or open her eyes, and was losing consciousness.
Hotel staff called an ambulance. Her frightened friends FaceTimed Emily's family - and they all thought she might die, Emily said.
She was taken to Herculanium University Hospital at around 9pm, where she was put on a drip. She woke the following morning feeling well, and was told there were drugs found in her stomach, but medics couldn't say which drugs without a full toxicology report which needed to be requested by the police. Emily's mum arrived at the resort in the early afternoon, and the group flew back to the UK on Sunday June 30.