student in coma from peanut reaction

[eragon]

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/general-news/20141126/oakland-university-student-in-a-coma-from-allergic-reaction-to-peanuts


heartbreakingly sad. parents asking everyone to respect allergies esp at thanksgiving.

[CMdeux]

Wow.


I am so heartsick for his family this holiday.   

[GoingNuts]

Absolutely heartbreaking.  His poor family. 

I'm just speechless.

[momma2boys]

Breaks my heart. We should also remind our loved ones with fa not to try to deal with this alone. Epipens on you, and call 911, don't drive yourself and keep someone with you at all times. 

[CMdeux]

Good advice-- but-- as a college student, NOT always feasible.  (Sorry-- it's just not.  There will be times when you're alone.  I do agree with "call 911" though!!)

[momma2boys]

I meant during a reaction, not all times in general.

[Macabre]

He died tonight.

I am so heartsick. His poor family.

What incredible promise this young man's life had. It makes me so sad that it was cut short. This is horrific.

[Janelle205]

This is awful to hear - the friends must feel guilty as well, I'm sure that they would have driven him if they realized what could happen.

I will be keeping the family in my thoughts.

[MaryM]

So sad.  I'm keeping his family in my prayers.

[PurpleCat]

I was coming here to ask for prayers and was not going to read anything but this tread stuck out as I scrolled.  How horrible.  How sad.  More families to pray for.

[CMdeux]

http://www.oakland.edu/view_news.aspx?sid=34&nid=11893

I have often wondered-- observing here and also in news stories of youngsters who very tragically are lost to their food allergies-- if there isn't a mechanism at work that causes some kids with nut allergies to be amazing people--

they are classic overachiever types, a lot of them-- academically, yes (proving to authorities that they are "worth it" for the trouble that allergy restrictions all too often cause) but also socially.  They often seem beloved-- and also, often there is an undercurrent of some need to be "perfect" in that sense, or at least to NEVER make enemies of anyone ever, for any reason.   Don't make waves, be that friend who would do anything for others, etc. etc.  The bad news is that kids like this all too often also won't tell others to alter their behavior around them.

  I've seen this already with my DD, who is very much like this young man; she HATES to inconvenience others, and there is often a thread of "but they won't like me if I make my allergy a 'thing' here, so I'll suffer/deal with it/opt out/handle it myself."  We could intervene while she was in high school, but we also know that she's weighing the social costs in college quite differently than we would.    

It is only with media exposure to stories like this one, though-- that just being AROUND peanut butter cookies was apparently this promising, lovely young man's cause of death-- that the general public (and hey, maybe even family, someday) will learn that NO, it isn't always enough to just "know what you can't eat."  That attitude is really deadly, and as popular mythology, it creates a barrier to self-advocacy for adolescents.  All the more so when those adolescents, having experienced a lifetime of exclusion or bearing the brunt of adult ire over restrictions, decide that they'll give ANYTHING to not pay that cost anymore.  The heartbreaking reality is that the choice is often between the mutually exclusive sets of social acceptance and normalcy, or very basic safety.

I mention that here because I do think that a lifetime of exclusion and treatment as second-class leads to that kind of adolescent risk-taking.   It can kill.  It's been a common thread in so many of these stories.


I feel so heartbroken for his friends and family. 

[catelyn]

http://fox6now.com/2014/11/28/milwaukee-teen-dies-week-after-allergic-reaction-to-peanut-butter-cookie/

[GingerPye]

ohhh, I just can hardly bring myself to read these articles.  So horrible.   

[nameless]

This is scary --- I had a reaction in highschool from a cross-x cookie sheet that earlier in the day had those PB/Hershey kiss cookies on them. Everything supposedly had been washed before friend made me cookies...but obviously not.

I ended up being driven to the fire station to get in an ambulance to the ER.

Epipens back then were not common, nor did I have one --- there were bee sting kits w/ a syringe, which I think was kept at home.

Obviously I ended up ok, but it was a wake-up call for everyone.

[Macabre]

This is too much!  Two kids in two days. It is so awful.