A student was left slipping in and out of consciousness on the street after her drink was allegedly spiked on a Halloween night out.
The 18-year-old had been looking forward to the celebrations, but just hours later was slumped on the pavement with her 'eyes rolling into the back of her head', Teesside Live reports.
Now, she is sharing her experience in the hope of warning others, with numerous other reports of females having had their drinks tampered with.
The woman can vividly remember dancing and snapping pics with friends and her partner in a Hartlepool town centre pub, before heading with her group to another bar around midnight on October 31.
But at the second establishment, after buying a drink, she "almost immediately vomited into it".
She said: "I couldn't say where I was spiked, but I can recall shaking and hyperventilating in the second bar, and when I threw up, my partner immediately knew there was something wrong.
"He knows I'm never sick and so at that point, because I had taken such a sudden turn, he began to think I'd been spiked."
Despite his protestations, the pair were made to leave.
And according to the student, staff at the bar told her partner "she hasn't been spiked, she's just on drugs".
Outside, she began to struggle to see clearly, and was "slipping in and out of consciousness" as an ambulance was called.
"My partner was helping me, and he's described how my body just collapsed on itself, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head.
"When I finally came around I was in the back of the ambulance, and I filled a carrier bag more full of sick."
Paramedics checked the student over, with documentation showing they assessed her as only "mildly intoxicated" with alcohol.
She said they believed she may have something else in her system and had experienced a panic attack.
The 18-year-old has not yet reported the incident to the police, explaining she has not yet had "time to process" what happened to her.
She said already she's had people around her second-guess her account, and is worried about her experience being overlooked.
"Already my boss has questioned what happened, and the staff at the club were reluctant to listen to my partner's worries.
"Even if I had been on drugs, which I wasn't, I believe they should have been more supportive."
The incident has left the student "nervous to go out" and she said is going to "struggle to trust anyone" on a night out".
"I went home to Leeds to spend time with my mum, and I struggled to leave her side.
"This isn't just something you can brush off, it's impacted my confidence."
The student said it "isn't an isolated incident", she's heard at least six reports of spiking from students in Hartlepool from across the Halloween weekend.
A North East Ambulance spokesperson said, "We were called at 1:06am on 31 October to a person unwell on Victoria Road in Hartlepool.
"We sent an ambulance crew and an officer and treated and discharged the patient on scene."
A dad also reported his daughter being spiked in Middlesbrough club The Empire in October. He told Teesside Live that "she had only had a few drinks and couldn’t remember a thing".
Police confirmed this incident had been reported.
A statement from The Empire said: "While we feel that it’s inappropriate to comment on an individual case, we would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our zero tolerance position on drug use of any kind inside The Middlesbrough Empire and we work closely with the Licensing Police, council and local police force on this matter."
The venue is now using new StopTopps to cover and protect drinks, while other pubs and clubs are doing what they can to put a halt to the frightening crime.
