Langham Hotel food poisoning outbreak: Inside the high tea from hell
Saturday, July 11, was set to be a tempestuous, stormy day in Melbourne with freezing high winds forecast to rage through the city from Port Phillip Bay, but Prue Dimitry was at home slipping on her very best high heels.
She was determined to wear them. No matter how bad the weather.
The mother of two young children had hardly been out of her Essendon home on her own for weeks and so, naturally, she had been looking forward to the chance to attend a birthday Chocolate High Tea at the prestigious Langham Hotel on the edge of the Yarra River on Melbourne’s Southbank.
“I was really looking forward to it,” the 34-year-old says, “I’m usually covered in Play-doh and sultanas so the idea of a lovely afternoon child-free in a fancy hotel was bliss.”
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Kissing her husband, Bill, goodbye and hugging sons Max, 3, and Leo, 17 months, she happily jumped into a car with her best friend, Tanya, 28, and her mother, Linda — the birthday girl of the moment who was turning 50.
As the trio drove towards the city, the 23 other women invited to the tea party - including Linda’s sister, Tania Lamanna and daughter Amber Lamanna, 14 - were also excitedly taking cars, trains and taxis and travelling towards the hotel.
The 388-room venue, previously known as Sheraton Towers Southgate until it was rebranded 10 years ago, is part of Langham Hospitality Group, owned by Hong Kong-based Great Eagle Holdings Limited.
It’s one of the group’s 13 flagship international hotels, an elegant place to be seen for international figures such as Bill Clinton as well as sporting teams and celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
As the women eagerly made their way there, a team of chefs at The Langham, which is led by high-profile executive head chef Anthony Ross, were preparing for the group’s noon high tea in the kitchens underneath the lavish Aria Bar and Lounge on the second floor.
The chicken had been poached for their trademark sandwiches, the scones were baking in the ovens. The chocolate buffet was being laid out on silver trays.
However, something, somewhere in the process was already going very wrong. It’s still not clear what exactly unfolded within these kitchens to cause the ensuing nightmare.
But what we do know is that none of the guests that Saturday and Sunday could have imagined the horrors that would commence, an average 24 hours after they returned home.
The sudden, nauseating illness. The agonising stomach cramps. The intravenous drips that 15 of the 86 diners who would fall ill would need in hospital because they would become so dehydrated.
They certainly never expected visiting a five-star hotel with such a famous heritage would mean they would be caught up in one of Melbourne’s worst salmonella poisoning disasters.
A disaster so bad it would threaten the life of at least two unborn babies. One of which would within two days have to be delivered five weeks early, while his mother endured the worst labour imaginable, continuing to be violently ill even as her epidural was administered.
If I hadn’t gone into hospital on the Monday my baby could have been dead by Tuesday. It was the worst time in my life
Within 36 hours of attending the high tea, Prue herself would become so ill she would collapse and drop baby Leo on the floor of his nursery. She would also lose 5kg from her already slim frame within the space of six days. But she didn’t know that yet.
What Prue and the ladies in her party expected, as they walked up the grand stairway dotted with marble, opulent fountains and chandeliers, was simply fun chatter and gossip over delicate bone china, the three-tierd cake stands and maybe a glass of French champagne.
“And the chocolate fountain of course,” Prue remembers, “We were all hugely excited about that.” Who wouldn’t be?
After all, as Henry James famously wrote in his book, A Portrait of Lady, “there are few hours in life more agreeable … than the ceremony known as afternoon tea”.
And here in Melbourne, from the Windsor Hotel to The Waiting Room at Crown Casino, high tea has certainly become the culinary trend of the moment; a whimsical, old-fashioned escape from the frenetic pace of daily modern life.
And it was thanks to Linda’s husband, Vince, who had offered to generously foot the bill for his wife’s birthday tea at a cost of $79 a head (totalling $2054 for all 26 women) that they were soon seated together on the plush, slate-grey, velvet-covered seats surrounded by chintzy lampshades, purple orchids and gold-framed prints.
So far, so civilised.
The tiered stands were brought over almost instantly and the group — except the seven vegetarians present — all started to tuck into the chicken sandwiches and vol-au-vents first.
“It was lunchtime and we were all starving, so we all made the most of it,” says Lauren Costa, 26, who was 11 weeks pregnant at the time. “It was a really nice occasion and Linda seemed happy, although she doesn’t usually like a fuss.”
Lauren, a receptionist, didn’t think twice that eating any of the food on offer may be a risk to her unborn child.
“I was at a well-respected venue, it wasn’t as if I was eating raw sushi in a dodgy food hall,” she told the Herald Sun.
Across the room were other happy, mostly female groups; best friends, family and interstate visitors, celebrating birthdays, baby showers and anniversaries.
At least two more sittings followed that day. And at 10am the next day another group of 13 excited friends, all of whom were either pregnant or had children under the age of two, arrived to celebrate the baby shower of a happy mother-to-be who was preparing for the birth of her second child.
Like Prue and her friends, they chatted and laughed as they indulged in exactly the same food on offer for the high tea package. Presents were given out. Tearful speeches were made.
“It was a great day, we were all commenting that it was the best high tea we had ever been to, I felt really special,” the mother-to-be tells the Herald Sun.
As they left, they may have seen proud mother Jill Hawkins walk in with her daughter, Emily Furzer, and her best friend, Amelia Vine. Emily was turning 16 and it was to be a very ladylike treat for the teen on the cusp of adulthood.
“It was a lovely afternoon,” Jill says. “The girls felt very special and especially enjoyed the chocolate buffet.”
By Sunday evening back at their homes in suburbs across the city, many members of the groups who had attended the high tea sittings over the weekend were sharing one awful common link - they all began to feel a bit odd.
For most it started with mild cramping, for others a slight feeling of having an upset stomach. Some simply thought they were coming down with the flu or a gastro virus.
But very quickly for those affected, they were soon knocked off their feet.
From the many accounts given by those who fell ill who have contacted the Herald Sun over the past few days, this wasn’t the average bout of food poisoning; this sickness was in the supersonic league. Poisoning that has since officially proved in lab tests to have been caused by the potentially deadly salmonella bacteria in 27 cases so far.
Without a single exception, those we have spoken to have all described the ensuing days spent bed-bound and miserable with “terrible cramps worse than childbirth”. They spoke of constant sweating, severe vomiting and unpredictable bowel movements.
Most described how the sharp, contraction-like pains went on every 20 minutes for up to a week.
“I thought I was dying,” says Prue, “I have never felt pain like it.”
Many rapidly lost huge amounts of weight.
One by one, many victims were hospitalised because of the severity of their symptoms.
“I collapsed and my children were terrified,” says Tania Lamanna, a mother of four who was taken to the Epworth Hospital along with daughter Amber.
“I honestly feel somebody could have lost their life.”
Amber was devastated to miss a dance concert and exam for which she had been preparing for more than six months.
Up to seven members of the baby shower group alone were severely ill.
But what concerned doctors the most was the effect the poisoning was having on the two pregnant women who had eaten at the hotel; they were both suffering from the symptoms of salmonella by the Monday evening.
While Lauren was in pain, an ultrascan and other tests showed her baby was not at risk, and she was allowed to go home.
“I was so relieved,” she says, “this is my first baby and I was so stressed that I was having a miscarriage as the cramping was so bad. It was terrifying for me and my whole family. Everyone was praying for me.”
However, doctors soon became most concerned about the 29-year-old baby shower mother who was just five weeks off her due date.
The woman, who does not wish to be named, was admitted to hospital on the Monday evening and it was found her pulse was high and the baby’s even higher.
“All of a sudden I felt an overwhelming sense to vomit and screamed out,” she says.
“I could not control my vomiting at all and I really freaked out, then lost my breath because I was panicking so much so they put the oxygen on me.”
When it was discovered the woman was already 3cm dilated, it was decided the baby needed to be urgently delivered.
After a traumatic labour, during which the mother was terribly ill throughout, by 11am on Tuesday her son was born safely.
Heartbreakingly though, the mother wasn’t allowed to touch or breastfeed him until Tuesday this week in case she passed on the infection.
“If I hadn’t gone into hospital on the Monday my baby could have been dead by Tuesday. It was the worst time in my life.”
The only ones who seem to have escaped illness were the vegetarians and vegans, leading many to speculate that the chicken sandwiches or egg-based products served that weekend were the source of the salmonella outbreak.
It was only when the Herald Sun revealed there had been an incident at the hotel earlier this week that the full scale of the disaster began to emerge, with dozens of victims contacting the newspaper with their story.
Further revelations followed that the Langham had been told to clean up its act in February 2014, when council inspectors found cockroaches and cross-contamination issues in the kitchens.
Melbourne City Council and the State Government scuffled in the fallout, each blaming the other for failing to disclose to the public that food safety issues had been detected in the Langham’s kitchen.
The strain was also clearly overwhelming this week for members of the Langham’s senior management team — the Herald Sun understands one has had a complete emotional meltdown.
The key focus now, however, is that many of those 86 people who fell ill are still off work and school recovering from their experience, with some only having just been released from hospital. Doctors have told the victims it can take up to a month for the infection to completely leave their systems.
“My daughter and I still don’t feel well enough to leave the house,” Tania says. “We are simply too weak, it’s very depressing and we all feel very angry about it.”
Anger so strong that the Lamanna group of family and friends are seeking initial legal advice to discuss whether they will launch a civil claim against the hotel.
“I think it’s likely we will take action,” Tania says. “I’m disappointed with the whole way it has been handled.”
While some victims have told the Herald Sun they have still not been contacted by the Langham management, the managing director said yesterday all concerned guests had now been spoken to and stressed the hotel had been given a clean bill of health.
“The Langham, Melbourne continues work around the clock with the Department of Health and Human Services to reach a conclusion of this serious situation,” general manager Ben Sington said.
At 1.30pm on Friday, the Herald Sun paid a visit to the lunchtime high tea sitting at The Langham. Would it be full of empty seats?
Far from it. Every single table was packed with well-dressed Melburnians, groups of girlfriends and even a small baby shower for one heavily pregnant woman.
The pretty stands, heaving with cakes and sandwiches, were being quickly devoured.
Nothing, it seems, scares off us tough Victorians and our love of high tea.
Lucie Morris-Marr and Grant McArthur July 24, 2015
Originally published : Herald Sun
