A 12-year-old boy in Livonia, Michigan, accidentally consumed an alcoholic drink at an Outback Steakhouse and went to the hospital as a result.
The boy, identified as Mekyle Cureton, visits the restaurant often and always orders a virgin strawberry daiquiri, Fox 2 reported Tuesday.
However, on his most recent visit, the drink did not taste as it had in the past because it had rum in it.
“My head started hurting when I was leaving and my heart started beating as I was drinking it,” Cureton explained.
The Queen Bee Mixology website lists the ingredients of its strawberry daiquiri recipe as white rum, lime juice, simple syrup, strawberry puree, and frozen strawberries.
Cureton’s grandmother, Yolanda Collins, said she tried the beverage to see if it tasted different but noted that the family does not drink. Therefore, she could not tell if it contained alcohol.
After Cureton told his family his heart was beating rapidly, they eventually discovered the bartender made a mistake and put alcohol in the beverage.
Collins kept the receipt, which showed a strawberry daiquiri.
According to Nemours KidsHealth, alcohol is dangerous for children and teenagers. The website describes it as a depressant:
That means it’s a drug that slows down or depresses the brain. Like many drugs, alcohol changes a person’s ability to think, speak, and see things as they really are. A person might lose his or her balance and have trouble walking properly. The person might feel relaxed and happy and later start crying or get in an argument.
In 2015, Parents offered advice on how to talk to children about alcohol:
Per the recent Fox article, the family was not required to pay for their meal, and restaurant leaders apologized for the incident. The child was taken to a local hospital and diagnosed with accidental exposure to alcohol and accidental ingestion.
“We take this situation very seriously and are thankful that the child involved was not seriously harmed,” a spokesperson for Outback said. “We have taken the appropriate disciplinary action, and all our bar and staff has been retrained to ensure this does not happen again.”