The mother of a woman who died in 2012 after kissing her boyfriend, who had just eaten peanut butter, is now speaking out about the dangers of severe food allergies.
Myriam Ducre-Lemay, 20, died after kissing her boyfriend goodnight,
CJAD Radio reported. She began having trouble breathing, tried her asthma pump, and asked her boyfriend if he had just eaten peanuts. He had eaten peanut butter on toast, and Ducre-Lemay told him to call 911. She wasn't carrying her Epipen, an epinephrine injector used to treat a severe allergy attack known as anaphylaxis.
Dispatchers instructed Ducre-Lemay's boyfriend to administer CPR. Paramedics arrived eight minutes later, administered epinephrine and were unsuccessful in intubating her. Ducre-Lemay's brain was deprived of oxygen, and she died at the hospital, the station reported.
Micheline Ducre is sharing the story of her daughter's death to spread awareness about severe food allergies.
Teens and young adults face the highest risk of food allergy-related death, Dr. Christine McCusker, head of pediatric allergy and immunology at Montreal Children’s Hospital,
told CTV News.
"That’s the range when kids are going out more, they're spending less time under the watchful eye of their parents, they're taking a few more risks and they're not as likely to be carrying their Epipens," she said.
Sever reactions can come on quick, and delays in administering epinephrine can be tragic.
"People don’t necessarily recognize [that] it can go from that point where, 'I feel funny' to 'Uh oh' very fast," McCusker said.
She said traces of allergens can stay in saliva for up to four hours.
Every three minutes, someone goes to the emergency room with a food allergy reaction,
according to Food Allergy Research & Education. About 15 million Americans, including one in 13 children, have food allergies. The incidence of food allergies among children rose 50 percent between 1997 and 2011, with peanut allergies growing at an even faster rate.
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