Toddler served whisky at Frankie and Benny’s
Boy rushed to hospital after birthday meal turns sour
Friday 12 OctOber 2012 A TWO-year-old boy was rushed to hospital after drinking from a glass of whisky and water served to him at a Frankie and Benny’s restaurant.
Sonny Rees was served the spirit and drank from the glass through straws after being taken to the restaurant in Swansea to celebrate his second birthday.
It is thought the family’s order became mixed up with that from another table, and restaurant bosses have now apolo- gised for serving alcohol.
Around ten of Sonny’s extended family, including grandparents and uncles and aunts, visited the restaurant to celebrate the birthday last Saturday.
The child’s mother, Nina, a teacher, said: “We had gone in just after noon and I had ordered him water and cordial.
“Because he was eating salty things, I had been encouraging him to drink.
“We had finished our first course when we noticed he was
the youngster pulling a face as he was drinking.
“I realised what Sonny had been drinking when I had to retrieve a dropped toy from his glass and I could smell the whisky on it.”
After tasting the drink, Mrs Rees said she estimated the whisky was a double serving.
She said: “Sonny had taken about ten sips – he was obviously intoxicated. I think there was a stag do in there at the same time and that the drinks had been accidentally mixed up.”
Mrs Rees, 34, said staff had re- acted badly at first, refusing to believe that it could have happened, until the manageress took a sip herself.
She said: “I went into a panic and a rage. I was crying my eyes out, and called NHS Direct, which told me to take him straight to A&E.
“I felt the reaction of staff at first was awful. They said it couldn’t have happened, and just went and got him some water and walked off. I felt they more or less dismissed me.”
The birthday meal, for which they had bought two special cakes, was abandoned while Sonny’s parents took him to Morriston Hospital, Swansea. He was asleep by the time he arrived at A&E and was later given the all-clear by doctors.
But after getting returning to the family home, he was sick.
Managers at the restaurant gave the family a 50 per cent discount to the bill and called the family the following day to apologise.
A spokesman for Frankie and Benny’s apologised for the mistake. “The company is incredibly sorry for what happened,” he said. “It was a human error and we are putting measures in place to ensure it never happens again.”