A Wyoming family is sounding the alarm about accepting drinks from strangers after a young mother of two nearly died.
Kailey Kline, 23, went out with her friends to ring in the new year at the Silver Dollar Bar in Cody, one of the most popular bars in the city — and ended up in the hospital in Billings, Montana, for almost a week.
Her mother, Amber Espinoza, noted on Cowboy State Daily that her daughter rarely goes out drinking and was “probably too confident” when a stranger handed her a drink at closing time.
By the time her fiancé, Shawn, picked her up from the bar, he said she seemed a little drunk, but nothing about her behavior caused any concern.
But within ten minutes of the couple arriving home, Shawn said his fiancée began acting strangely and began vomiting.
Then she went limp and started “foaming at the mouth and then she started having convulsions,” Espinoza said.
Shawn immediately called an ambulance, which Espinoza, a travel nurse, said may have saved her daughter’s life.
Kailey Kline, 23, almost died after accepting a drink from a stranger on New Year’s Eve
Her fiancé, Shawn, immediately called an ambulance when she started frothing and freezing shortly after he took her home
At first the emergency services could not figure out what was going on.
They tried to give Kline a dose of Valium, which Espinoza said had no effect, and she continued to confiscate it.
Finally, Kline told the EMTs she thought something might have been added to her drink, and the responders intubated her as they took her in an ambulance to a local hospital.
She then had to be airlifted to St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings, where doctors performed more tests.
They performed an electroencephalogram on Kline to monitor her brain function while she was sedated on a ventilator.
But Kline, who had no history of seizures or diabetes, continued to convulse every time nurses or doctors tried to give her a stimulant — a symptom often associated with antifreeze poisoning.
Her condition continued to worsen, with her sugar and potassium levels falling and lactic acid levels increasing, despite nurses giving her recurring fluids and antibiotics.
Every test the hospital ran for drugs also came back clean, stunning the hospital staff – until they gave her an antifreeze antidote, which resulted in an almost immediate response from her body.
Kline had to be airlifted to a hospital in Billings, Montana, where she spent a week while Shawn fed her and brushed her hair when she was too weak to do so herself.
When Kline’s breathing tube was finally removed, one of the first comments out of her mouth was, “I’ve become homeless,” her mother said.
But a nurse at the hospital has since concluded that antifreeze is the “most likely” cause of Kline’s condition – although she noted that a definitive cause will be impossible to determine because her blood was drawn too late after the incident.
Antifreeze has a sweet taste, making it difficult to notice when combined with another sweet liquid, such as a mixed cocktail.
“If she was already drinking sweet or fruity drinks, she wouldn’t have tasted it,” Espinoza explained.
She noted that her daughter remembers what the stranger who handed her the drink at the bar looks like, and Cody Police Lt. Juston Wead told Cowboy State Daily that its officers are investigating the incident “fairly quickly” with only “a number of people we still need.” talk.’
“We are still working on this case to determine what happened,” he said.
Wead noted that there were no other police reports of drinks at Silver Dollar that evening, but Espinoza said some local social media posts suggested otherwise.
She said she doesn’t blame the establishment for what happened to her daughter, but she believes the lesson is not to accept drinks from strangers.
“Without knowing who actually did it, it’s hard to pin the blame on any one company,” Espinoza said. “They can’t always be 100 percent responsible for their customers.”
Wead agreed, saying people should always remain vigilant about their drinks in public settings.
“It’s important to make sure you’re aware of your drink because things like that can happen,” he said, warning: “Don’t accept drinks from people you don’t know, don’t leave your drink unattended. ‘
Kline, a mother of two, began to improve almost immediately after doctors gave her an antifreeze antidote
Fortunately, in Kline’s case, she continued to improve and was even released from the hospital on Monday.
It does not appear that Kline suffered any permanent injury or organ damage from the poisoning, although her memory continues to fade in and out, Espinoza said.
She wrote in one update of an online fundraising campaign for Kline’s medical bills on Tuesday that her daughter “woke up and wanted to walk out the hospital doors on her own.” She missed her babies and really wanted to be home with them.
“She worked with physical and occupational therapy and did great!” Espinoza wrote.
‘Her voice is hoarse from the ventilator, she is weak, but she is definitely making positive steps!’
Espinoza went on to say that “Shawn has been her rock.”
‘He has remained calm, humble and positive in such a chaotic situation. He showed up every day and spent every visiting hour by her side.”
“He fed and combed her hair when she was too weak to do it herself.”
“He has the patience of a saint.”