Cody resident Kailey Kline learned a tough lesson on New Year’s Eve — don’t accept drinks from strangers.
Kline, 23, was hospitalized in Billings, Montana, for nearly a week after what she and her family believe was a stranger poisoning her drink with antifreeze while ringing in the new year at the Silver Dollar Bar in Cody.
Cowboy State Daily spoke with Kline’s nurse, who confirmed antifreeze as the “most likely” cause of her poisoning, but a definitive cause is impossible to determine due to her blood being drawn too late after the incident.
The poisoning resulted in Kline suffering a series of seizures early New Year’s Day that led to her hospitalization and eventual transport to Billings via air ambulance for advanced treatment.
Over the past week, Kline’s condition has stabilized and she has begun walking again, but is still very weak.
Her mother Amber Espinoza said it doesn’t appear Kline has suffered any permanent injury or organ damage, although her daughter’s memory still comes and goes.
Kline was released from the hospital Monday, but was still not well enough to be interviewed for this story.
Her full recovery will likely take some time, Espinoza said, which will be difficult for a mother with two young children at home.
Seeing her daughter get poisoned by a spiked drink from a stranger and then have to recover from it in the hospital has been “a little nerve-wracking,” Espinoza said.
Cody police confirmed with Cowboy State Daily that it’s investigating the incident.
What Happened?
Espinoza said her daughter rarely goes out drinking, but her friends convinced her to celebrate the new year at the Silver Dollar, one of the most popular nighttime establishments in Cody. There has been no evidence so far showing that the bar or anyone affiliated with it had anything to do with spiking Kline’s drink that night.
The fact her daughter is relatively trusting and inexperienced in bar settings, Espinoza believes, made her susceptible to having her drink poisoned.
“She was probably too trusting,” Espinoza said.
After a long night of partying, Espinoza said her daughter remembers being handed a drink by a stranger near closing time at 1:30 a.m., which is around when she started feeling unwell.
Because of the sweet taste of antifreeze, the substance can be difficult to notice if poured in with another sweet liquid such as a mixed cocktail, Espinoza said health staff informed her.
“If she was already drinking sweet drinks or fruity drinks she wouldn’t have tasted it,” Espinoza said.
When Kline’s fiance picked her up at the bar shortly after, he said she seemed a little inebriated, but nothing in her behavior triggered his immediate alarm.
However, within 10 minutes of the couple getting home, Kline started acting strange and began vomiting, and then shortly after that went limp.
“And then she started foaming at the mouth and then she started seizing,” Espinoza said.
Her fiance immediately called an ambulance and Espinoza, a traveling nurse who lives in Otto, Wyoming, said if he had simply put her daughter to bed, she may have died.
When emergency responders arrived, they tried giving Kline a dose of valium but it had no effect and she continued to seize.
“They weren’t sure why this was all happening,” Espinoza said.
She was eventually intubated in the ambulance, but not before she told them she believed her drink had been spiked.
Kailey Kline and her young family. (Courtesy Photo) 
Kailey Kline was life-flighted to a hospital in Billings, Montana, where her condition did not stabilize until given an antifreeze antidote. (Courtesy Photo) 
Kailey Kline is fed by her fiance, Shawn Snyder, in the hosptial. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
Situation Turns Dire
Eventually, Kline was life-flighted to St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings, where more testing was performed and an electroencephalogram was put on her to monitor brain function while she was sedated on the ventilator.
Kline, who has no history of seizures or diabetes, continued to suffer seizures and convulsions every time nurses or doctors tried to give her a stimulant. Ethylene glycol intoxication is commonly associated with these types of symptoms.
Her condition continued to worsen, and her sugar and potassium levels were dropping while her lactic acid was increasing despite receiving fluid resuscitation and active antibiotics applied to go after the unknown toxin. Every test the hospital ran for drugs came back clean and staff was hitting a brick wall until they gave Kline the antidote for antifreeze, resulting in an almost immediate response from her body.
“Her sugar started coming up, her potassium started coming up, then her lactic acids started decreasing,” Espinoza said.
Due to the relative speed that antifreeze metabolizes in the body, it can’t be officially confirmed that’s what Kline was poisoned with, but the fact her body responded to the antidote so abruptly and was suffering symptoms that aligned with this type of poisoning makes it the most likely cause.
“They’ll never give a definite unless they can prove it,” Espinoza said.
When her breathing tube was removed, one of the first comments out of Kline’s mouth was, “I got roofied.”
Espinoza said her daughter remembers what the stranger who handed her the drink looks like. Cody Police Lt. Juston Wead said police are investigating the incident “fairly rapidly” and there’s “some people we need to talk to” regarding what happened.
“We’re still working through this case to solidify what happened,” he said.
He also said there were no other reports of drinks being spiked at the Silver Dollar that night, although Espinoza said some on local social media said otherwise.
Representatives of the Silver Dollar did not respond to Cowboy State Daily’s request for comment.
Tough Lessons
Espinoza said she doesn’t blame the Silver Dollar for what happened and believes the real lesson is not to accept drinks from strangers.
“Without knowing who actually did it, it’s hard to place blame on a business,” Espinoza said. “They can’t be 100% responsible for their patrons all the time.”
Wead agrees and said people should always be vigilant about not accepting drinks from strangers or leaving drinks unattended in public settings.
“It’s important to make sure you are aware of your drink because those types of things can happen,” Wead said. “Don’t accept drinks from people you don’t know, don’t leave your drink unattended.”
Wead said issues of drinks being spiked have not been a major problem in Cody.
It has been a problem in other areas, however, but usually only seen through the incognito deployment of flunitrazepam and gamma-hydroxybutyrate, commonly known as a “roofie.”
Espinoza, a traveling nurse, said she’s never heard of someone’s drink being spiked with antifreeze before.
“A lot of people want to be nice and buy you drinks, but if you don’t know them, don’t drink it,” she said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
