- Boy, 12, got drunk after Outback Steakhouse staff accidentally gave him non-virgin strawberry daquiri
- His grandmother rushed him to the hospital after the boy complained of headaches and heart palpitations.
- Outback staff have been disciplined and retrained, according to Outback officials.
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A 12-year-old got drunk on a “virgin” drink at an Outback Steakhouse after staff accidentally laced him with alcohol.
Mekyle Cureton and her grandmother, Yolanda Collins, are regulars at the Livonia, Michigan, outback, visiting several times a month. He said Fox 2 that his favorite order is a virgin strawberry daiquiri. But during a recent tear, something was wrong.
“It didn’t taste like the other times,” Cureton said. “It didn’t taste normal.”
After taking a few sips of the drink, Cureton said he began to feel ill.
“I started getting a headache when I was leaving and my heart started racing while I was drinking it,” Mekyle added.
The child was taken to the hospital, where doctors helped him remove the alcohol from his system. However, this left Mekyle with a nasty hangover, her first, at age 12.
Mekyle Cureton, 12, got drunk on a “virgin” drink at a Michigan Outback Steakhouse after staff accidentally laced him with alcohol.
Mekyle and her grandmother, Yolanda Collins, are regulars at the Outback in Livonia. Her favorite order is a virgin strawberry daiquiri. But on a recent visit, it was accompanied by alcohol.
Collins took a sip of the drink to see if there was indeed alcohol in it, but couldn’t tell because she wasn’t a drinker herself.
“We don’t drink, so we couldn’t tell if there was alcohol in it or not,” Collins told the outlet.
“After that, he started letting us know that his heart was racing.”
She reported the waiter, who then expressed his concerns to the bartender. The bartender admitted he accidentally made the frozen drink with alcohol.
“It was supposed to be a blank daiquiri, but it says daiquiri,” Collins told Fox 2, receipt in hand.
The restaurant staff apologized to the customers and prepared their meals for them.
The sixth grader was taken to the hospital where doctors could do nothing but give him Tylenol and told him to sleep. He had a hangover the next day.
“The diagnosis was accidental alcohol exposure and accidental ingestion,” Collins said. “I didn’t want him to have an alcoholic experience like that.”
After taking a few sips of the drink, Mekyle said he began to feel ill and his “head started to hurt.”
The sixth grader was taken to the hospital where doctors could do nothing but give him Tylenol and told him to sleep.
Outback officials confirmed staff were disciplined and had undergone training to ensure the Mekyle situation did not happen again.
An Outback official issued a statement to Fox 2 following the horrific incident.
“We take this situation very seriously and are grateful that the child involved was not seriously injured,” the statement said.
“We have taken appropriate disciplinary action and all of our bar and staff have been retrained to ensure this does not happen again.”
Collins said she just wants to make sure what happened to Mekyle doesn’t happen again.
“I just hope they don’t make the mistake again,” Collin said.