School Child Has Anaphylactic Reaction After Peanuts Fall From A Classmate’s Pocket
In September 2021, a student took a bag of peanuts out of her pocket unaware that her classmate Charlotte had an airborne allergy to peanuts. Charlotte began to react very quickly, going into a life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Charlotte and her mother Nicki share their perspectives with us from that traumatic day.
Charlotte’s Story
I am eleven years old and was diagnosed with a severe airborne peanut allergy when I was five. I had been throwing some peanuts for the birds and I touched my face afterwards. My skin turned red - literally in the shape of my handprint! We’ve been managing my peanut allergy well ever since.
Charlotte was 5 years old when she was diagnosed with her food allergies.
One morning in September 2021, another student who was sitting next to me in my form, pulled an open bag of peanuts from her blazer pocket, some falling onto the table, and said, “I have peanuts!” I immediately tried to move as far away as I could to the other side of my chair. I told two of my friends what happened but didn’t tell my teacher at the time. I didn’t want to cause a fuss and I knew it was too late now anyway.
At the time, I had crutches because I had recently fractured my foot and as the bell rang, I stood up and began to hobble to my next class. I didn’t realise at that time that my body was already reacting to the airborne peanut dust and causing me to feel confused. I went past my class, and I got lost. I ended up in a French class in another building. Someone helped me to get to the correct class but at this point I was struggling to breathe, and my throat felt like it was closing up.
I decided to go straight to the school office where Alex, the Head of Year 10 happened to be there and came to help me. She said my throat looked swollen and that I had a rash that was creeping up my neck onto my face. She instantly told me to get my EpiPen (adrenaline auto-injector), my antihistamine medication and my inhaler. She took me into the first-aid room where she sat me down and administered the Epi-Pen into my outer thigh. At the time I thought it didn’t hurt, but later on, when the bruise developed it did. While she was doing that, the other amazing office staff called 999.
While we were waiting for the ambulance, Alex gave me ten puffs of my inhaler and two spoonful’s of my antihistamine. I was very frightened but Alex was so calm that it helped me feel safe. The paramedics arrived, examined me and took me to hospital even though the allergic reaction had calmed. They needed to take me to hospital to keep an eye on me. At the time I was admitted to hospital, my heart was still racing. Finally, after about six hours I could finally return home but couldn’t go to school the next day as I had to rest. I would like to say thank you ever so much Alex. You don’t know how much it means to still be on this earth.
Looking back, I think a handout should be given to all students to teach them how dangerous my peanut allergy can be. The student with the peanuts didn’t realise what could happen to me.
Nicki, Charlotte’s Mother’s Story
That day in September goes down as one of the worst days of my life.
Whilst at work I received a call from Charlotte’s school - she had been in contact with someone who had brought peanuts into school and was going into anaphylactic shock - the ambulance had been called and they were waiting for it to arrive. I rushed to school and arrived just after the ambulance. The crew were checking her vitals. The rash on her face had thankfully gone down and was only present on her neck now. I was so relieved that Charlotte was breathing.
I saw Alex sitting nearby. We had known each other at university and I hugged her, telling her how grateful I was. She had saved Charlotte’s life and in turn had saved mine. I will never be able to repay her - thank God she knew what to do! When we were handed over, the hospital staff were incredible. We sat patiently, waiting to ensure that Charlotte had no adverse reaction to the EpiPen and then we were allowed home. Looking back at that day, if the school had not had staff like Alex - there could have been a different tragic ending to this story.
As a family we always took Charlotte’s allergy seriously - but now I do not think we took it seriously enough. Her reaction was so severe to the airborne dust from the peanuts that she could have lost her life. Our lives changed that day. We are now aware we all need to make more checks to keep Charlotte safe and will continue to do so for rest of our lives. Schools, colleges and universities need to ensure that all allergies are catered for, and that all students are made aware so that incidents like this are not repeated. If a child doesn’t want others to share details about their allergy, information about the dangers of allergies can still be taught in a general and meaningful way.
Schools should have ‘Allergy Ambassadors’ who work alongside school councils to help everyone understand. We need our children to be safe in whatever environment they find themselves in. Educating people about the dangers of all allergies is the only way forward.
This story demonstrates the importance of yet another reason to appoint an ‘Allergy Tsar’ in Government. Thanks to the quick thinking of an individual school staff member, Charlotte recovered quickly and is well, but the endangerment of her life could have been avoided had students been taught to understand the risks of food allergies and allergens upon their allergic classmates. Please share and sign our petition today.