Office Party Goes Awry As Balloon Prank Lands Birthday Celebrant In Emergency Room

"The allergic reaction became so severe that she had to be rushed to the hospital."

Jesse

• Published in Interesting
• February 24, 2024

Our narrator (Original Poster) and his partner-in-crime, Lukas, concocted a plan to dazzle their colleague Lily for her first anniversary at the establishment. They were armed with nothing but determination and a budget of $50 for supplies.

And thus began the mission to transform Lily's mundane workspace into a whimsical wonderland of balloons. With their boss's blessing, the duo sacrificed their beauty sleep and arrived as early as 6 AM.

Work began at nine, so they had three hours to wrap up the operation ‘blow Lily’s mind.’ But little did they know, their seemingly innocent surprise was about to take a sharp turn.

After what felt like an eternity, Lily finally made her grand entrance. The excitement quickly turned chaotic as the overflowing balloons spilled out and engulfed poor Lily in a latex-laden avalanche. 

Her shrill screams echoed through the office halls along with confused rings of ‘surprise!’ It turned out that Lily had a severe latex allergy—a detail overlooked in the excitement of the moment.

What followed was a frantic rush to the hospital as the allergy took a turn for the worse within just 30 minutes. The well-meaning colleagues were riddled with both guilt and disbelief. They only planned to make Lily smile on her first anniversary here; an office calamity wasn’t on the agenda.

As Lily recuperated at home, the burning question weighed heavy on the duo: Were they to blame for this surprise gone wrong, or was it simply a case of misguided good intentions?

The story in detail

OP and her colleague (Lukas) decided to surprise another of their co-worker (Lily) for her first-year anniversary. This involved filling the office with balloons

They finished setting up everything in about 2 hours and patiently waited for Lily to arrive.

When Lily arrived, she opened the door to see a whole lot of balloons, some of which fell on her body

Lily started screaming with fear, only for them to discover that she's allergic to latex.

Not long after, Lily was rushed to the hospital due to an allergic reaction to the balloons.

We gathered the most interesting comments from the Reddit community.

"Do you work in HR or something? Had she sent a company-wide memo about her latex allergy?"

"You've probably contaminated her office for weeks, in addition to the building HVAC system."

"YTA Look, even without knowing about the allergy, this was not a nice surprise. This was a prank."

"I’d say a soft YTA because it would be a hassle to clean out all those balloons, so it really was a bit of a light-hearted prank."

"Dude, a cookie cake would have been fine. No one wants their office filled with balloons."

"YTA - this is obnoxious office behavior, with or without an allergy."

"A balloon surprise is nice if you know it’s something someone likes. But obviously, you didn’t know if she likes balloons or not."

Redditors pointed out the lack of prior disclosure regarding Lily’s latex allergy. Unless she sent out a company-wide memo or had explicitly disclosed it, OP couldn't have known.

However, OP got slammed for trying to do something over the top rather than just opting for a simple surprise. In addition, their boss should have known about the allergy and informed OP and Lukas at the planning stage.

We hope Lily makes a speedy recovery and that everyone at the office can learn from this blunder.

Jesse