When someone has severe food allergies, the prospect of eating out can turn into a gamble. After they make kitchen staff aware of what they can’t ingest, the only option from there is to trust that the allergies will be taken seriously.
Sadly, it’s also true that the more severe an allergy gets, the more essential that reliance on other people’s sensitivity becomes.
Because as one case in England tragically shows, one person’s diligence about their allergies can only go so far if those around them don’t also respect them.
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13-year-old Karanbir Singh Cheema of West London had plenty of reason to take his diet seriously.
As The Telegraph reported , in addition to having asthma and atopic eczema, he also had life-threatening allergies to wheat, gluten, nuts, eggs, and all dairy products.
But despite his heavy burden of conditions to stay on top of, Cheema was reputedly diligent about staying healthy and safe.
Which is great to hear, since many kids would struggle with being denied so many things.
However, there wasn’t much he could do when one of his classmates at William Perkin Church of England High School decided to throw a slice of cheese at him.
Which is an odd thing to do.
Though, I suppose kids do odd things all the time.
The teen, who legally cannot be named, apparently saw this as “usual behavior in year eight” and stood about a foot away before tossing the slice, which hit Cheema on the left side of his neck.
By 11:30 am, Cheema went into anaphylactic shock and staff administered an EpiPen and two spoonfulls of a medication called piriton.
It’s a relief to know that the school had the correct first aid on hand and knew how to use it.
They also gave him his inhaler and called paramedics, who noticed that he was gasping for breath and had broken out into hives as they arrived.
Shortly thereafter, Cheema stopped breathing.
Cheema would die 10 days later in Great Ormond Street Hospital with his family at his bedside.
They described him to The Telegraph as “so bright he could have been anything he wanted.”
The classmate involved and his accomplice gave testimony at an inquest into Cheema’s death on Wednesday.
The boy who threw the cheese claimed not to know that Cheema was allergic to dairy and that he was only aware of his wheat allergy.
However, some inconsistencies in his testimony calls that into question.
As The Telelgraph reported , he went on to say, “I thought maybe he would get a fever or a rash and miss school for a while… I didn’t know it could lead to death.”
It sounds like bullying via allergies, which isn’t cool.
If he was truly unaware that Cheema was allergic to dairy, it would be odd to expect him to get a rash or a fever after throwing a slice of cheese at him.
The accomplice who had handed the boy the cheese in the first place made a similarly dubious claim.
He was aware that Cheema had a dairy allergy, but claimed not to know that cheese was a dairy product.
As he put it, “At the time I didn’t know dairy was cheese – milk and yoghurt, I would say that was dairy.”
The boy who threw the cheese also addressed Cheema’s family, saying, “I just want to say that I didn’t mean any harm – I’m sorry, I’m sorry for what I did.”
Cheema’s mother, Rina, said the school was provided with a full report on all of Cheema’s conditions.
But even doctors would struggle to predict such a serious reaction to cheese-throwing.
Sadly, a consultant at the hospital had also told his mother that it was unlikely that skin contact with food could cause anaphylactic shock.
h/t: The Telegraph
