Discussion Boards => Main Discussion Board => Topic started by: eragon on November 26, 2014, 04:14:41 PM
FAS has upgraded our forum security. Some members may need to log in again. If you are unable to remember your login information, please email food.allergy.supt@flash.net and we will help you get back in. Thanks for your patience!
Title: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: eragon on November 26, 2014, 04:14:41 PM
heartbreakingly sad. parents asking everyone to respect allergies esp at thanksgiving.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: CMdeux on November 26, 2014, 04:47:41 PM
Wow.
I am so heartsick for his family this holiday. :-[
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: GoingNuts on November 26, 2014, 05:58:08 PM
Absolutely heartbreaking. His poor family.
I'm just speechless.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: momma2boys on November 26, 2014, 07:04:20 PM
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. :'(
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: CMdeux on November 26, 2014, 07:06:52 PM
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!!)
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: momma2boys on November 26, 2014, 07:08:31 PM
I meant during a reaction, not all times in general.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: Macabre on November 26, 2014, 11:25:04 PM
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. :'(
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: Janelle205 on November 27, 2014, 01:59:10 AM
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.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: MaryM on November 27, 2014, 07:02:25 AM
So sad. I'm keeping his family in my prayers.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: PurpleCat on November 27, 2014, 07:50:01 AM
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.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: CMdeux on November 28, 2014, 12:59:25 PM
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.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: catelyn on November 28, 2014, 04:00:57 PM
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: GingerPye on November 28, 2014, 05:41:36 PM
ohhh, I just can hardly bring myself to read these articles. So horrible. :'(
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: nameless on November 28, 2014, 08:51:41 PM
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.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: Macabre on November 28, 2014, 11:15:43 PM
This is too much! Two kids in two days. It is so awful.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: PurpleCat on November 29, 2014, 08:10:57 AM
:-[
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: catelyn on November 29, 2014, 10:49:10 AM
Its heart breaking. I had to re-read to make myself actually comprehend it was two people with almost identical stories.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: spacecanada on November 29, 2014, 04:56:30 PM
Wow, two identical tragedies. So terribly sad. We'll be keeping their families and friends in our prayers.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: Bunny on November 30, 2014, 03:02:37 PM
One of the news stories says that he was bullied for 12 years in school because other parents were mad about restrictions on bringing peanuts to school. He was also called "Peanut Boy." If you scroll down to comments, there is chatter from other students saying that his mom was a pain in the a** and threatened to sue other parents, etc. Yeah, right. I bet the mom was fed up with the bullying.
And it amazes me that people would go on to a news story of the boy's death to rant about what a bee-yotch his mom was about his allergies and keeping him safe at school. What's the matter -- isn't the kid's death (and his parents' pain) enough for you? Or is this just the last chance you'll have to pile on and gripe about how you didn't get to bring birthday treats to your homeroom at school? Geez.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: GoingNuts on November 30, 2014, 04:49:42 PM
OMG Bunny. That is just beyond the beyond. I have no words. Again.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: CMdeux on November 30, 2014, 06:29:15 PM
I saw that, too, Bunny.
My own college student has opted to use this story as the jumping off place on a research project for one of her classes, and I was TRULY reluctant to have her use it because the parallels are just so striking, and it (for me, anyway) is just so close to home. On the other hand, I hope that it serves as a reminder to her-- she cannot treat this as an inconvenience to be ignored when the benefit seems great enough. I hope that the message penetrates. She's done some things (as a college student) that make me seriously nervous for her.
I guess I'm another of "those" moms. Those of us in the vanguard (with kids now 15-25) really did have to be pretty aggressive to get even basic accommodations. If we could, I mean. Which is how my DD wound up being educated at home. :pout: At least nobody had to be "bothered" with her safety, I guess. ~) Sheesh.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: TT on December 01, 2014, 01:18:30 AM
Yes, the posthumous disability harassment. Saw that. I must say it's a full standard deviation of inhumane beyond garden variety Darwin keyboard warriors.
Title: Re: student in coma from peanut reaction
Post by: SilverLining on December 01, 2014, 06:53:55 AM
That on-line harassment has continued for the families of teens who committed suicide too.