Boy, 13, with dairy allergy died after schoolmate threw cheese down his T-shirt

[left-of-center2012]

A boy with a severe dairy allergy died after he was chased by a schoolmate who threw cheese down his t-shirt, an inquest heard. Karanbir Cheema, known as Karan, suffered a serious allergic reaction in Greenford, West London, UK, just before midday on June 28 last year.

The 13-year-old was severely allergic to wheat, gluten, all dairy products, eggs and all nuts, was asthmatic and suffered from atopic eczema. He went into anaphylactic shock at William Perkin Church of England High School in Greenford, west London, St Pancras Coroners' Court heard.

Paramedic Kierin Oppatt:
"He appeared to be in a state of pre-arrest. He had very slow respiration - he was gasping for air. His skin was red and there appeared to be hives.”
Karan was taken on a stretcher to the ambulance, but he never regained consciousness and died with his parents at his hospital bed in Great Ormond Street Hospital ten days later on July 9.

Another boy, also 13 at the time, was later arrested on suspicion of attempted murder but has not yet been charged. Detective Sergeant Christian Rodgers while going through a list of potential witnesses with the coroner ahead of the full inquest said: "The person involved is no longer at the school."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/19/boy-13-dairy-allergy-died-schoolmate-threw-cheese-t-shirt-inquest/

[ProudLib72]

1. Why no epi-pen???

Heck, when we had a kid in our school with a severe allergy, all of us teachers got grilled on the use of an epi-pen.

This should not have happened!

[BigmanPigman]

2. We did at my school too. That was only 6 years ago.

The article says they used an epipen but I guess it didn't work. If his allergy is so severe that a mere touch of cheese to the skin is enough to kill him, why wasn't he given some sort of protection? Something doesn't sound right about this at all. Is info missing?

[ProudLib72]

3. Mine was about 15 years ago

All the teachers and students (it was a Hebrew school, so there were only about 40 kids) listened to the kid's father who was a doctor. That father did the same lecture at his son's regular school, too. Something is definitely not right with this story. Maybe away from school grounds? And investigating the kid who did it makes it sound like there was intent to hurt (if not kill).

[Ms. Toad]

10. It sounds to me like classic bullying

I'm sure the person who stuffed the cheese down his shirt did not really believe the allergy was that severe - and was trying to tease him. Bullies are like that - find a weak spot and punch it.

According to the article, the proper protocol was followed in the 7 minutes it took for paramedics to get there. Epipen, 2 tablespoons of 2 spoons of pirotin (Chlor-Trimeton is a US brand), an an inhaler. The only failure to follow protocol that I see was the school failed to convey the severity of the attack. The teen was also well-trained in his own condition, and would have known exactly what to do/convey to staff.

[ProudLib72]

14. I'm amazed at how severe his reaction was

And I have to wonder if informing the paramedics would have changed anything. What really gets me from my experience being a teacher in a school with a child who has a major food allergy is that one of his classmates would test how bad his reaction would be. That is extremely disturbing.

[Ms. Toad]

15. Just do a search for peanut butter allergy here.

You'll come up with a number of threads that include DU membersridiculng banning peanut butter from classrooms, buses, or field trips to keep kids with peanut butter allergies safe.

If folks on DU are ridiculing the steps necessary to prevent a life-threatening allergic reaction, it isn't much of a step to think a bully would intentionally test the limits to torment one of their victims (not realizing how severe it is).

As for whether alerting the medics to the severity - they likely had more epipens. sometimes it takes more than one, but the school/chilc likely had only one.

[jmowreader]

5. Read the article

The staff had administered two spoons of Piriton (an antihistamine), used an epipen, and gave him his inhaler.

When the paramedics arrived, he was in such distress - AFTER being given the drugs - that one of them called for more-advanced life support, but had to go outside because for some reason his radio wouldn't communicate with headquarters. When the paramedic returned to the patient, he was informed the patient had stopped breathing so they shocked him with a defibrillator, administered adrenaline and started CPR.

This is a child who really needed to be homeschooled under the tutelage of a private teacher because, as is painfully clear now, there was no way to protect him. Maybe he would have grown out of these allergies...but we'll never know that now.

[ProudLib72]

9. You're right!

They administered everything they could, yet nothing seemed to work. It's really scary. Until now I believed in the 100% efficacy of the epi-pen.

[left-of-center2012]

11. From the linked article ...

"Staff had administered two spoons of piriton, an epipen and given him his inhaler."

We are limited in how much of an article can be quoted in the post.
Some info is to be found in the article.

[smirkymonkey]

6. Poor little boy.

How can children be so cruel? They killed him. I hope they regret this every day of their lives. What a sweet looking little boy.

[ChazII]

7. Kids can be cruel.

My son looks like Quasimodo, the Disney version and still does. (Yes, he has had surgeries.) From the time he was an infant through pre-school he was called monster baby or freak. First grade through sixth grade he was called monster and told to 'take off the mask. ' I agree with poster who suggested that he should have been home schooled.

[Horse with no Name]

8. This doesn't sound right

Generally the allergen needs to be systemic.
This is very sad but it makes me wonder if somehow this child ingested something that was forbidden and nobody is fessing up.

[Ms. Toad]

12. With murder charges pending, I can pretty much guarantee

they have ruled out sneaking forbidden items via the autopsy.

Aside from which, the description sounds like mom trained him like I trained my daughter who had (among other things) a poultry allergy. She would not knowingly eat poultry because it brings her ulcerative colitis out of remission. She knew, at age 5, that if meat was ground and not expressly labeled as to what animal it came from she had to ask.

There were only two slip-ups from diagnosis just before her 5th birthday to age 28. A restaurant lableled its taco meat - taco beef. She knows beef comes from a cow and is safe and ate it without confirming they were not lying. (Their restaurant labels were changed nationwide as a result of that incident.)

Similarly, she was fed a hot dog she was told was 100% beef - the moment I had a bite I knew it was poultry because of the grittty texture - but by then it was too late. Sure enough - she was out of remission a week later (about the time it takes for her allergic reaction to trigger her gut symptoms).

I recognize the parent-child dynamic that kept my daughter safe all these years in the way his mother spoke about how she trained her son.

[left-of-center2012]

13. Do you suspect a conspiracy?

Do you suspect a conspiracy,
to frame the 13 year old boy who was arrested?

[Horse with no Name]

16. Not at all

But as a nurse you generally don’t see this severe of a reaction that isn’t systemic.