Vodka tonic cocktail leaves woman on her 'deathbed' due to her quinine allergy

She only had one sip

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

We’ve all occasionally felt ill after one drink too many, but for Angie Mendez, just one sip of a particular cocktail proved nearly lethal.

She was on her way home from an office party in Oklahoma when she suddenly started feeling sick - severely sick. Completely out of the blue, she was hit with stomach cramps, felt nauseous and got the chills.

Mendez just made it home before the violent vomiting and diarrhoea began, and her temperature soared.

The next morning, Mendez still felt ill, and as a healthy 35-year-old, decided to go to the hospital.

Doctors confirmed that something wasn’t right: she couldn’t produce a urine sample and her blood counts were abnormal, but her symptoms suggested nothing more than a common stomach bug, so Mendez was sent home.

Two days later, however, Mendez’ symptoms had worsened and she was back in the emergency room - she hadn’t been able to urinate since she started feeling ill, her blood pressure was high, her back ached, her red blood cells were damaged and she couldn’t eat or drink.

Mendez’ kidneys had stopped working.

Hurriedly moved to a larger hospital and put on dialysis, Mendez thought she was going to die: “I was on my deathbed,” she told The New York Times.

Mendez was seen by various experts who tried different treatments, but no one was sure what the problem was.

Dr. James N. George, a haematologist and professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, however, was convinced Mendez had had a severe allergic reaction.

After asking about the foods and medicines Mendez consumes, nothing stood out. Dr George had one final thought before leaving to write up his notes: “Do you ever drink gin and tonic?” he asked.

But Mendez didn’t.

Her boyfriend pointed out that she had drunk a cocktail called a smoothie - made from vodka and tonic - at the office party, only Mendez hadn’t known the ingredients.

“I literally had just one sip,” Ms. Mendez said. “It tasted odd. My body just sort of reacted funny. I didn’t want any more. I threw it away.”

Dr George asked if she’d ever had the drink before, and that was when it clicked.

16 months previously, Mendez had tried the cocktail at a wedding and become violently ill afterwards - she’d ended up in hospital that time too, but no one had made the connection.

As it turns out, Mendez is allergic to quinine, the ingredient in tonic water that makes it taste bitter.

This was back in 2009, but Mendez is the subject of a new report in The New England Journal of Medicine, led by Dr George.

She was in hospital for two weeks after her diagnosis and was then on dialysis for several months - her body retained so much water that her weight soared to 170 from her usual 125, all because she had a sip of one drink.

Gradually, her kidneys started working again, although they never returned to their previous level.

Mendez was off work for months, now has trouble thinking of words in conversations and gets migraines, which she never used to do.

She can even smell tonic from the other side of the room.

Unfortunately, there’s no cure for quinine allergies but it’s extremely rare - Dr George and his colleagues recently trawled through medical records and found 112 definite cases, three of which were fatal.

But as the allergy affects so few people, there’s no need for G&T fans to give up their tipple of choice.