Sausage puts teen into shock

A Wellington teenager went into anaphylactic shock after eating a sausage mistakenly labelled as dairy free.

Hellers has recalled a batch of its Original Sizzlers after discovering they were cheese sausages in the wrong packaging, but the recall didn’t come soon enough for 14- year- old Meaghan Robertson Serjeantson.

The Roseneath girl was rushed to hospital with hives and her throat closing after eating the sausages on Wednesday.

“I was home alone. I was cooking myself lunch and I had, like, eaten most of the hot dog and realised it felt kind of funny,” she told the Weekend Herald.

Meaghan noticed the sausages were greasier than usual, but masked the taste with tomato sauce and chopped onions.

“Ten minutes later I started getting hives and stuff.”

She called her mother, who was about 15 minutes from home, and the pair rushed to Wellington Hospital.

“I looked like a tomato and when the nurse saw my face she just skipped triage.”

Meaghan needed t wo doses of adrenaline, as well as oxygen and steroids.

“She’s a pretty tough nut. She’s dealt with allergies, excema and asthma from year one,” said father Kevin Robertson.

Hellers received a phone message on Tuesday night about the mispackaging, and the message was cleared on Wednesday morning.

Hellers has issued a recall notice on any of the affected sausages of the original Sizzler 450g packs with a best- before date of November 3.

A Tauranga mother is also upset that more information wasn’t put out sooner.

The woman, who didn’t want to be named, said she was the one who left the voice message for Hellers on Tuesday night after her 8- year- old daughter had a reaction to the same sausages. The mother said she received a phone call from Hellers chief executive John McWhirter the next day about the incident.

However, she did not feel enough information was put online and in newspapers to warn about the error.