Viewers of 24 Hours in A&E left horrified by needle spiking story

Student who collapsed outside a nightclub reveals she has no memory of the night as doctors tell her they fear she’s been stabbed with a needle on 24 Hours in A&E

• Kate, 21, was taken to Queen’s Medical Centre after falling unconscious in club
• Medical team feared she had been spiked with a needle in Nottingham venue
• Read more:  Pub in Nottingham will hold weekly ‘girls only’ night after spikings

A student who collapsed outside a club has revealed her horror as doctors told her they feared she had been spiked with a needle on 24 Hours in A&E.

Kate, 21, appeared on the Channel 4 show last night as she was rushed to Queen’s Medical Centre after suddenly falling unconscious in a night club in Nottingham.

The medical team said they were extremely concerned she could fall into cardiac arrest, before waking her and informing her they feared she had been stabbed on the night out.

Many of those watching the programme were horrified by Kate’s ordeal, with one writing: ‘I’d be sobbing and so scared if this happened to me – those poor women.’ 

Kate, 21,  who collapsed outside a club, has revealed her horror as doctors told her they feared she had been spiked with a needle on 24 Hours in A&E

Another commented: ‘These poor girls. Not only have they been spiked, they’ve potentially been exposed to hepatitis and HIV. Why are people so disgusting?’

‘People who spike women need locking up and the key throwing away,’ one added.

A fourth added: ‘So no matter how much you protect your drink when they have ways to get the drugs into your blood stream much quicker! Shocking and terrifying.’ 

Appearing on the programme last night, her close friend Harrison, who was with her at the time, said: ‘Me and Kate bumped into each other at various points in the night, she looked like she was having a good time.

Many of those watching the programme were horrified by Kate’s ordeal, saying they would be ‘sobbing’ and ‘so scared’ if it happened to them 

‘At the last point, I suggested getting some food and leaving. As me and Kate were walking down the staircase towards the exit, I noticed she stopped.

‘In the space of 90 seconds, she’d gone from the Kate I know and love, to on the staircase, her eyes rolled back, knees buckled and she fell.’ 

He continued: ‘Every time she breathed in, it was like a gasp for air as if she’d just come up for water.

‘”Why is my friend on the floor? Why isn’t she speaking? Why can’t she stand up?”‘

The student appeared on the Channel 4 show last night as she was rushed to Queen’s Medical Centre after suddenly falling unconscious in a night club in Nottingham

‘I called an ambulance and they asked me to start administering CPR. That was the most worrying part because you start to think, she’s in real trouble here. 

‘And if you do something wrong, then you’re looking at a really bad outcome for a friend.’

‘You replay it in your mind a lot, you look back on it and think, “Could I have done anything differently to stop any of this happening?” I could lose my mate.’

With Kate safely in A&E, paramedics explained she wasn’t responding but had been trying to vomit. 

Initially staff at the hospital were unable to wake Kate, and grew increasingly worried about whether she might go into cardiac arrest 

Sarah, one of the nurses, said she was extremely concerned about whether she could go into respiratory arrest and cardiac arrest. 

Sarah said: ‘You automatically think alcohol or drugs are involved. We can give drugs to help reverse it. But it is important to help us rule out every option as well.’

Kate awoke and, feeling confused, asked the medical team why she was at the hospital.

She told doctors that her arm hurt but it wasn’t clear why, with Sarah saying: ‘If a patient has collapsed, it can be a bit of a mystery.’

Clinicians were concerned she had been spiked with a needle and began searching for a puncture wound, confessing it could be difficult to find because it could be so small

Clinicians were concerned she had been spiked with a needle and began searching for a puncture wound, confessing it could be difficult to find because it could be so small.

The team began studying her arms to see if there were any marks on her, saying: ‘Do you think there’s a possibility you could have been injected anywhere at all?’

Sarah said: ‘It can be very very difficult to find where these marks are.’

Kate said she didn’t know if she could have been injected, with Sarah saying: ‘We’ve had a few people coming in and they’ve been injected and they’ve been in the same places as you. And we don’t know with what.’ 

At the end of the programme, Kate explained how she had been impacted by the spiking, confessing it had made her more anxious during nights out 

Gemma, one of the advanced practitioners, spoke to Kate about what she could or couldn’t recall about the night out.

She said: ‘I remember two people were carrying me down the stairs. Nothing like this has happened before.

‘I did drink but it was nothing excessive. I went out for dinner and it was lovely.’ 

Gemma told her: ‘People are reporting they felt a pinprick and then they found a lump or a scratch the next day. 

‘The plan is for me to inspect everywhere on your body and we don’t know what’s been happening with this trend, we just want to check you over.’

Doctors went on to check her heart rate, before saying all her blood tests had all come back fine and normal. 

Kate was monitored for two days before doctors released her, and she confessed the situation had affected her for weeks afterwards.

She said: ‘I remember at one point I stood in a corner, so I knew no one could be behind me.

‘I just cried loads. I just let it all out – it was the first time I’d cried or been upset since it happened.

‘It took me a while to get back to normal really, but it is something that you can’t let affect you.’        

In October 2021, women in Liverpool, Edinburgh and Dundee of victims reported being pierced with a needle in their leg, hands and back before waking up with no recollection of the night before – symptoms similar to those who have had their drinks spiked with so-called date rape drugs. 

Those targeted with needles also carry the risk of shared or unclean needles being used, posing threats of HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. 

What do the experts say on reports of injection spiking? 

Is it possible?

Yes – and there are credible reports where people have woken up with needle marks having been spiked.

But the likelihood of it being a widespread phenomena is ‘deeply improbable’, according to one medical consultant.

David Caldicott, an emergency medicine consultant and founder of drug testing project WEDINOS, told VICE News: ‘The technical and medical knowledge required to perform this would make this deeply improbable.

‘It’s really hard to stick a needle in someone without them noticing, especially if you have to keep the needle in there for long enough, maybe 20 seconds, to inject enough drugs to cause this.’

Could someone not give the injection really fast?

Yes – but they’d need a very powerful drug to do so discreetly, experts say.

GHB is one of the most well-known ‘date rape’ drug and is also self-administered in small doses by people recreationally.

But Guy Jones, senior scientist at drugs charity the Loop, told VICE it would be a ‘poor candidate’ for injection because of the large amounts of fluid needed.

‘Therefore (it would require) a thick, painful needle. This means that the substance involved would be something that would be highly detectable for several days in a toxicology screening,’ he said.

Adam Winstock, director of the Global Drug Survey, added: ‘There are very few easily accessible drugs / medicines that could be given intramuscular in a small enough volume that people would not notice and the effects would take some time to come on.

‘What you see in the movies is not reality. People need to keep their drinks close to them, avoid taking them from strangers and keep an eye out for their mates.’

Can drugs be administered to any part of the body?

Yes – but some parts are more effective than others

Mr Jones told VICE: ‘Where drugs can be injected non-intravenously, there are specific injection sites that do not work well.

‘The back is one of these unsuitable sites due to the low fat-muscle content, and high concentration of pain receptors.’

What about drink spiking?

While injection spiking is still possible, drink spiking is a lot more common.

Incidents of drink spiking in the UK increased by 108 per cent between 2015 and 2018, with 179 incidents taking place in 2017 alone.

This is only the officially recorded numbers – and is likely to be much higher as it is common for people not to report it to police.

Charity Drinkaware advise: ‘Don’t accept a drink from someone you don’t know and if they’re available, use drink stoppers, which can be purchased online, for the top of your bottle.’

Rohypnol (or Roofie) and Gamma Hydroxybutyrate (GHB) are the most commonly known ‘date-rape’ drugs.

Recreational drugs like Ecstasy, Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), Ketamine and other ‘party-drugs’ are sometimes used to spike alcoholic drinks.

 

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