A server says that she was tracked down by the Department of Health after contracting salmonella and told she isn’t allowed to return to her job for nine days.
In a TikTok posted on Oct. 21, Kimberly Guevara (@kg.hustla) says that she found out from her doctor that she has salmonella, a bacterial infection usually contracted from food.
Guevara says the Department of Health contacted her via phone and text but because she thought the correspondences were spam, she didn’t call the department back. She says that a representative from the Department of Health then arrived at her door.
“I’m seriously freaking out, I think they’re serial killers,” Guevara says in her TikTok, which had over 5 million views on Monday. She explains that the representative slipped a letter under her door and told her that she couldn’t return to work “until November.”
Guevara says that she is on antibiotics and will have to submit stool samples to the Department of Health before returning to work.
“I am such a baby like I didn’t know it was this serious,” Kimberly wrote in her video’s caption of the salmonella.
@kg.hustla I am such a baby like I didn’t know it was this serious #salmonella #deptofpublichealth #truecrimetiktok got me all out of sorts #salmonellaoutbreak #sadtiktok ♬ original sound – Kimberly
In follow-up videos, Guevara says that she took time off work for her honeymoon and after being sick this month, so she was upset about not being able to return to work until November.
“I’m gonna be fine. More broke than I wanna be, but fine,” Guevara says in another follow-up TikTok.
She explains that when the representative from the Department of Health called her, Guevara Googled the number and didn’t see it listed for the Department of Health and that the note slipped under her door was handwritten.
The text that Guavara said she received from the Department of Health doesn’t include the administration’s name; the representative only identifies herself as a “public health nurse.”
In a comment on another TikTok, Guevara confirmed that her husband has not contracted salmonella from her. She also says that while she doesn’t have to isolate at home, she cannot diggest food—hence her inability to return to work.
Many commenters on Guevara’s viral video said her initial suspicion of the texts and calls she received was justified.
“If I got a call from ‘the Department of Health’ I would also think its spam bc I get voice-mails about the student loans I do not have,” @roux.roo commented.
“I get so many scam calls,” @Juniptea wrote. “I wouldn’t have answered them either.”
“NEVER trust a phone call or text,” @hammygirl2020 commented. “You were not rude, you were being safe.”
Other commenters on Guevara’s series of videos gave insight into individual doctors’ contact with the Department of Health.
“I work at the Dept. of Health. We always ask the doctors to warn the patients we will be calling so this doesn’t happen, but sometimes it’s a surprise,” @gracepowers56 commented.
“When [a test] comes up positive [for salmonella] we (Lab Techs) send a slant and a plate to the Dept. of Health with all the patients info,” @dreya415 wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to the Los Angeles Department of Health via email and Guevara via TikTok comment.
