The students of St. Lawrence University know the risks of eating meats from Dana Dining Center. Every student and faculty member knows that a bite of fish can turn a pleasant dinner into a miserable thirty minutes on the toilet. However, few have experienced such horrors as those endured by Max Gilbert.
Gilbert, a sophomore at SLU, is like any average Laurentian: he is from Boston, plays on the football team, and pursues a demanding course load. After a nice winter break back home, things were looking up for Gilbert going into his fourth semester at SLU.
SLU Career Services hosts the annual January Career Boot Camp at the end of winter break and Gilbert made the early trip to be part of the selective event. The majority of students and staff were still vacationing at this time, leaving a quiet, but functioning Dana Dining Center for those attending the boot camp. The meal served by the Dana staff for the first night was ribs along with the average assortment of sustenances. That would be Gilbert’s last meal for four days.
Tired from a long day of mingling with alumni connections, Gilbert had built up a large appetite. “I had Dana ribs, along with a bacon cheeseburger with lettuce,” said Gilbert. The food, however, did not stay down for long. “A few hours later, I threw up.”
Gilbert spent the next three hours on the toilet. “I was curled up in the fetal position, not knowing what to do,” he said. “I wanted to go to the hospital but I didn’t know if I had the energy to go to the hospital.”
As the pain grew, Gilbert became increasingly worried. Few people were on campus and there were no students in the area to help him. “After calling my parents, I decided to call security,” he said. “I had a jacket on, blanket over me, looking like I was dead drunk when security came. The first thing security asked me was if I had been drinking that night.”
The security officials decided that sending Gilbert to the Potsdam hospital was the best option. “Security said ‘we can’t drive you, we aren’t set up yet,’” said Gilbert. “Luckily my friend with a car was in town or I would’ve had to pay the ambulance fee.”
Gilbert’s friend drove him to the hospital and the hospital immediately put him on Intravenous (IV) therapy. Gilbert, still sick, stayed at the Potsdam facility for two hours. It was 2 a.m. when hospital employees released him.
At that time, SLU security was closed. Hospital employees were forced to call an off-duty SLU security employee to drive Gilbert back to campus. “Bless her heart, I would’ve slept on the floor in the waiting room if she hadn’t driven me back.”
Although the doctors claimed it was a horrible stomach virus, Gilbert is convinced the sickness was caused by the ribs he ate that evening. “They were hesitant to call it food poisoning because I was the only one who got sick,” he said. “But, calling it as I see it, it was food poisoning. And the only thing I ate that day was Dana.”
The sickness had lasting impacts on the student-athlete. “I was sick on Sunday and I didn’t get out of bed until Wednesday and didn’t have a full meal until Thursday,” said Gilbert. “I lost 10 pounds and it destroyed my system for four days. And 10 pounds for a football player is something I can’t afford.”
Since the episode, Gilbert has recovered seven pounds and feels like himself again. He continues to eat at Dana and has no hard feelings towards the dining center. Looking back on the event, he only has one piece of advice for his fellow SLU students: “beware the Dana ribs.”