Friday of last week a 7th grader with a peanut allergy died of anaphylaxis after eating Chinese food served at her class holiday party. I wanted to provide the link to the article in the Chicago Tribune in case you wanted to read the full story. It's really quite tragic, and I know the parents must be suffering. Apparently, the restaurant had been contacted to determine if the food was safe. Evidently, it wasn't, and if I've read the article correctly, the school was unable to inject the child with an EpiPen because there wasn't a health profile on file for her.
As usual, the Comments at the end of the article are infuriating and there appears to already be a lot of blame passing. It's unfortunate that the food was unsafe, but downright horrible that the school could only call 911. Parents, if you haven't taken the opportunity to go to the school and fill out all of the health forms for your food allergic child, please let this be a good reason.
I've been unsuccessful in linking the Peanut Allergy Action Plan that I give to all of Abigail's caregivers, but if you want to e-mail me at peanutallergyfree@gmail.com, I'll e-mail you a blank copy to complete. Also, don't forget to arm the school with antihistamine tablets and EpiPens!
