A British woman has told how she nearly died after drugs were spiked in her drink while on holiday in Malia.
Emily Earle, 19, was on a girls’ trip to Crete, Greece, with four friends when they went to a party. Just two hours into the party, while she was sipping on her third drink, Emily began to feel very unwell and fell asleep on the table at 5.30pm.
She said she felt very drunk and ran off to find a toilet while her friends waited for a taxi. Her friends found her in a hotel room with a group of boys within minutes.
They took Emily back to their hotel, but after a few hours she was struggling He panicked and lost consciousness at times and was taken to hospital by ambulance, the 19-year-old man from Crawley, West Sussex, said.
Emily said doctors confirmed she had taken drugs and she suspects a fellow partygoer slipped something into one of her drinks.
Emily Earle, 19, was on a girls’ trip to Crete, Greece, with four of her friends when they went to a party. Just two hours into the party, while she was sipping on her third drink, Emily began to feel very unwell and fell asleep on the table at 5.30pm (Emily pictured in her hotel room during the ordeal)
They took Emily back to their hotel, but after a few hours she was having trouble breathing and was falling unconscious intermittently. She was taken to hospital by ambulance (pictured above), according to the 19-year-old from Crawley, West Sussex.
Emily (pictured) said doctors confirmed she had taken drugs, and she believes a fellow partygoer slipped something into one of her drinks
Emily, a medical student from King’s College London, said: ‘This was an awful experience which was very traumatic for me, my family and my friends.
‘I almost died. I was afraid of the heat and the party was extremely crowded, 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.
‘I dread to think what could have happened if I had been separated from my friends. Shortly after we got back to our hotel, I was in a critical condition with difficulty breathing – I was deteriorating very quickly.
“My friends and family were terrified. They thought they were losing me. My memory is spotty from about 5:30pm and I can’t remember much after I left the party.
‘When you use a drug, it feels like something that only happens to other people, or to people who aren’t careful. But it can happen to anyone, no matter how careful you are.
“It’s very scary. You feel like you’re out of control – all your choices have been taken away from you.”
Emily and her friends left on June 23. On Wednesday, June 26, they were on the Malia Strip, where they bought tickets for a party.
Emily says she had a Malibu and Coke and a sex on the beach cocktail at the event, before diving into a vodka and pineapple.
She suddenly felt really drunk and started to fall 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 ate two BLTs, a burger, and an ice cream, but she was still hungry and thirsty.
“That was very unusual,” she said. “Normally I’d be fine after one BLT, those were huge.”
Emily’s friends drove her back to the hotel around 7:30 p.m. Despite their vigilance, she wandered off in search of a bathroom while they waited for a taxi.
Emily (pictured during the ordeal) said: ‘I nearly died. I was scared of the heat and the party was extremely crowded, 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.’
Emily said she woke up the next morning feeling fine, and was told drugs had been found in her stomach, but doctors couldn’t say what drugs without a full toxicology report that would have to be requested by police.
They found her within minutes in a hotel room with a group of boys. Back at their hotel they put her on the bed and her condition quickly deteriorated, and she was lying on the floor.
Emily’s hands and feet were freezing cold to the touch and her skin was red and blotchy. Her breathing was shallow and rapid and she could not feel her legs or open her eyes, and she lost consciousness. Hotel staff called an ambulance.
Her terrified friends FaceTimed Emily’s family — and they all thought she was going to die, Emily says. She was rushed to Herculanium University Hospital around 9 p.m., where she was put on a drip.
She said she woke up the next morning feeling fine and that drugs had been found in her stomach, but doctors couldn’t say what the drugs were because they didn’t have a full toxicology report, which police had to request.
She doesn’t know what other treatments she had in the hospital because of the language barrier.
Emily’s mother arrived at the resort early afternoon and the group flew back to the UK on Sunday 30th June.
Emily said: ‘I honestly have no idea how it happened – we were so careful. We’re very sensible and we did everything as a group. We were together the whole time.
“I’m very aware of the risks and very careful. A guy bought me a drink when we arrived and I didn’t touch it. If for any reason I had to put a drink down I didn’t go back to it.
‘I had my hand over my drinks when I wasn’t drinking them and I even took them to the toilet with me. I can only imagine someone nudging me and someone else slipping something in while I was distracted – the party was really busy.
“Everyone was frisked at the entrance, but if someone wants to take drugs, they’ll find a way. The most frightening thing for me is the motive of whoever did this – was it just for fun or did they want me to go back to their hotel room?”
Due to the language barrier, Emily was unable to obtain much information about her hospital stay and decided not to report the incident to the police.
Emily warned others to be vigilant, not to leave their drinks unattended and to stick with their friends
She said: ‘A woman in the bed next to me said this is very common. We can’t stop this kind of thing from happening, but you can take steps to minimise the damage if it happens to you or one of your friends.
“You can’t be too careful. It’s really important to stick with your friends. Don’t accept someone else’s drink and don’t leave your drinks unattended.
‘Stay in your group and be very vigilant. Don’t drink too much – this can make it easier for someone to distract you.
‘If you don’t feel well, tell someone right away. Watch for unusual behavior from each other. If someone is acting strangely, stay with him or her and take him or her to a safe place as soon as possible, because he or she could be taken away.
“My friends did a great job. We were all very careful, but it still happened and it affected all of us.”