Man orders seafood for office lunch; allergic coworker says, 'I hope I don’t die.'

'AITA, I ordered seafood for myself and coworkers despite one of them being allergic to shellfish?'

I work nights at a hospital, and I work a lot of overtime, so I spend 36-72hrs at work per week there. Most of us don’t bring food and end up putting in one big order on someone’s phone and Venmoing that person. There’s a woman I work with, call her M, who has allergies to shellfish and peanuts. We often accommodate her by ordering from her chosen restaurants.

One night, I decided to order from this place I love that has a lot of seafood and non seafood options. I offered my coworkers the option to put in an order on my phone if they wanted to.

So, people start putting in orders on my phone and M starts making a big stink. Talking to others about how inconsiderate she thinks I’m being and saying things out loud like “guess everyone’s ordering seafood tonight, hope I don’t die.”

I walked to the break room and came back to her complaining about me to the charge nurse who agreed with her, but We ordered anyway. Here's my rationale:

If you don’t like what I’m ordering, you are most definitely welcome to order your own food. Why should I worry about being extremely careful With your allergies if you don’t even care to carry or replace your epi pen for THREE YEARS?

I get the whole allergy menu thing for invite-only and RSVP events, but to expect me to change my diet to exclude your allergens at a place where I spend most of my time is ridiculous. But maybe I’m wrong? AITA?

Excerpts from their conversation:

OP: “maybe we could call this restaurant and explain your allergy to see if they can accommodate you.”

M: “no, even if they say they can it’s too risky.”

OP: “this is the best place to take a risk, its the hospital, we have epi pens everywhere.”

M: “oh, no, I don’t use epi pens, mine has been expired for 3 years. I don’t even carry one. I’m so careful with my allergies that I don’t need one.”

OP: “so you want the whole unit to tip-toe around your allergies every time we order food, yet despite the risk of anaphylactic shock, you don’t even have an epi-pen?”

M: “like I said, I am so careful that I haven’t needed one the last 3 years.”

OP: “well, I don’t like that you are putting the responsibility on me to protect you from your allergies when you clearly don’t take them seriously enough to carry an epi pen.”

M: “make sure you wash your hands, and your work area really well, like scrub everything down when you’re done and don’t come anywhere near me when you’re eating.”

EDITS FOR CLARIFICATION:

We are both “medical professionals.”

It’s not specifically a seafood restaurant. It’s a sports bar.

She’s Specifically allergic to shellfish. But frowns upon and avoids all seafood at all cost. I only know because I asked her that night.

My plate specifically contained seafood but not shellfish so I made the comment that she should be fine and she responded, “no, in my house we treat all seafood like shellfish because you never know.”

From the comments:

the-b1tch writes:

YTA. I'm allergic to nightshades and can't even be in the same room as them or I start to itch. Personally, I would've gone to head nurse and explained that if ppl wanted to order food I'm anaphylactic to I need to go home for my safety. It's kind of terrifying to see you're a medical professional and have no regard for human life.

Reytotheroxx writes:

If the precedent has been set that everyone pitches in to order, YTA. All the info about them not having an epi pen is irrelevant, you should stick to somewhere else.

FloridaMomm writes:

YTA. Your reasoning that there’s “epipens everywhere” is enough of a reason to not care about the allergy seals it for me. Anaphylaxis is AWFUL and using an epipen is not like popping a Tylenol. It saves your life but feels so so awful.

See_Real_Me writes:

I can't believe all the Y.t.A verdicts. WTF! It's not their responsibility to monitor the health of their co-worker, especially as that person barely even manages it themselves.

OP, NTA. Eat what you want. It's not like you were gonna go breath all over them and spread shellfish germs everywhere. Geez people, you can't baby the world all the time.