Food Allergic Teen Hospitalized from Peanut Fumes
A teen with food allergies (tree nuts) spent several nights in the hospital after fumes from peanuts caused a biphasic anaphylactic reactions (severe allergic reaction)
It’s hard enough to convince others that food can be dangerous or even deadly to some but try explaining contact or airborne reactions, and you’ve really got a challenge on your hands. This article is worth reading.
The teacher allowed Segawa to sit the lesson out; she didn’t eat or touch the peanuts, which the students placed in cups, measured and studied. The nuts, however, apparently sat exposed in the locked classroom all night, enough time for the fumes to permeate the room.The next morning, when Segawa arrived at the second-
period class, she began having a familiar reaction: constricted airways, difficulty breathing and swollen glands.
A few hours after class Thursday, she told the school nurse she needed to go to the hospital. In the emergency room, she received a shot of epinephrine, the only antidote to most food allergies.
That night, the symptoms returned.
Her mother drove her back to the ER, where she received two more shots of epinephrine and steroids.
October 13, 2008 @ 10:50 pm
This is when I wonder what the heck food is doing in the classroom, especially as part of a lesson. Certainly something of similar size could be measured and studied. Beads? Marbles? Granted, the teacher did what she or he thought was appropriate as far as letting the student sit out the lesson, but I still wonder about those who suffer from contact reactions as well as airborne. With all the peanuts being handled, surely a few hit the floor or came in contact with surfaces, not to mention all the hands that handled them touching everything else.
I often feel as though I’m overreacting, but more and more I’m seeing the value of keeping food out of the classrooms and limiting it to the cafeteria/lunch room.
October 21, 2008 @ 10:20 pm
This is exactly why schools should ban nuts all together. We all know how easily one can come in contact with residue and how fatal the reaction can be, so WHY take a chance? Why would any school not advocate ZERO risk or advocate being as safe as possible. I wouldn’t even allow my daughter to sit in a classroom with such an experiment taking place!
Peanuts are the only thing the class could measure??And,even if she had not had a reaction, shouldn’t schools do everything in their power to make activities inclusive? I’m shocked. My heart goes out to her family for the scare they had. I hope she is able to change schools or get the school to change policies.
October 22, 2008 @ 8:37 am
This is just unbelievable. The teacher is fully aware the student has a severe life threatening peanut allery and she chooses to include peanuts in the lesson plan. There are so many alternatives to real peanuts. That teacher should be disciplined by the principal, she made a conscience decision to bring a “loaded gun” into her classroom.
October 22, 2008 @ 9:53 am
Horrifying! Schools need to realize that peanuts are no longer the benign “kid-friendly” food they once were. They just aren’t and they need to stay out of the classroom.
I hope that the school takes this girl’s allergies more seriously now. They also owe she and her parents a big apology.
I would never allow my daughter to be present during an experiment like this and if I knew about it in advance I would protest it. Why should a child be forced into the hallway for such an unnecessary experiment?? Do something else–use your creativity. Peanuts should never have been used in this manner around this student.
I wish schools and the public in general would get over the whole notion that peanuts are the be-all and end-all of existence. But until then, we have to stay vigilant and be ready for anything, even nonsense like this.
October 22, 2008 @ 11:14 am
The incompetent teacher and nurse failed this poor girl. It is scary that in this day and age a SCIENCE teacher is so ignorant of food allergies. Sadly it just goes to show how dismissive and passive so many people are when it comes to this life threatening disability. Certainly the teacher would not allow a loaded gun in the classroom. For this child peanuts equal a loaded gun.
Thank God it wasn’t worse for this poor girl, as it easily could have been.
October 22, 2008 @ 11:45 am
This is so scary! I feel terrible this child had to experinece this. I’m sure the teacher didn’t realize, but maybe the school will undertand now how serious a reaction can be for some students.
It is so difficult to explain to others who can’t relate completely. They just don’t get it.
October 22, 2008 @ 1:13 pm
I am a science teacher. Whenever I used any food in the classroom, I checked it out with parents first. Food experiments are a way to link the known with the unknown for students. I understand the problems of food allergy myself; I quit my last teaching job due to inhaled severe allergic reactions. I was at the school for only 6 weeks and was extremely ill from 5 reactions. Although HR assured me that it wouldn'’t happen again, I was ill and traumatized from the expereince. Although my allergy was not a problem at other schools–and it is illegal to ignore allergies–it was was an extreme difficulty at that school. I am now not teaching; on every application, I explain my reason for leaving. Other teachers tell me that being open about my allergy before being hired will keep me from being hired. It probably has; how many times do you hear in the news that science teachers are desperately needed? And this allergic science teacher is unemployed.
January 3, 2009 @ 12:24 am
It’s crazy because the general population doesn’t realize just how lethal a peanut allergy can actually be. I have a cousin who was deathly allergic to peanuts and a little bit of dust would make his windpipe swell shut. It’s not a joking matter but unfortunately a lot of people don’t take the threat seriously.
August 23, 2009 @ 11:05 pm
It is such a scary thing sending your child to school and for 6 hours not knowing what they are exposed to. No one else will ever protect them the way you will. As for this teach I understand she let the child sit out to protect her but did she not realize while she was doing this that this one child is missing out on the same education as everyone else because she couldn’t think of something else to use so this girl didn’t get to participate in the lesson.