A Melbourne woman has told how she was left coughing up blood and had difficulty speaking and swallowing for a week after a nightmare meal at a popular restaurant chain.
Madison, who does not want her surname published, spent 10 hours in hospital after she swallowed something sharp while eating a paella at a Nando's restaurant, and a month later is planning to see a specialist for an ongoing throat issue.
When Madison contacted Nando's, they offered her a $13 voucher to compensate for the inconvenience of the experience – less than the company's $15 birthday vouchers.
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The whole experience has left Madison in disbelief.
"It's almost comical," she said.
The 30-year-old business owner was eating paella at an inner Melbourne Nando's restaurant after work on July 10 when she swallowed something she shouldn't have.
Madison said she felt something sharp in her mouth, but automatically swallowed it before thinking to spit it up.
"I was so tired that I didn't compute," she said.
"It was super sharp. It went down the middle of my oesophagus, and it felt like it was lodged there."
She started choking so she ran to the bathroom to try to cough the object up.
But Madison said she couldn't seem to move the object in her throat, and was just coughing up blood.
She said she could not speak because of the pain and was terrified what had happened to her.
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Days later Madison was sent an automated $15 voucher for her birthday.
Madison has said she found the offer of $13 "rather insulting", describing Nando's reaction to the serious situation as "comical".
"They're not seeing the severity of the situation."
Madison said Nando's made her favourite food, but the experience had turned her away from eating it.
"I've gone from eating there at least twice a week to probably never going again," she said.
A Nando's spokesperson told 9news.com.au the company acknowledges its response to the issue could have been better, and that steps have been taken to improve the handling of issues in future.
"Nando's takes food safety extremely seriously and has an internal team dedicated to reviewing, investigating, and responding to such queries," the spokesperson said.
"We acknowledge that our initial response to this query could have been improved and did not live up to our high standards of customer care.
"For that we have apologised.
"We have provided further training to our recently hired Customer Care representative to ensure prompt and appropriate action is taken for matters such as this.
"Nando's did undertake a full investigation at the restaurant, followed up with the customer to check in and the restaurant franchisee has extended an invitation to the customer to return for a complimentary meal so he can personally apologise for the inconvenience."