A 13-year-old boy lost his life after being struck with a piece of cheese.
On June 28, 2017, Karanbir Cheema was at his school in London, UK, when the unfortunate incident occurred.
Karanbir, who had multiple allergies including dairy, wheat, gluten, egg, milk, and tree nuts, was hit on the neck by a piece of cheese thrown by a classmate.
Although Karanbir did not consume the cheese, its contact with his skin led to a severe allergic reaction.
He was immediately taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Tragically, Karanbir passed away several days later at Great Ormond Street Hospital. The cause of death was identified as post-cardiac arrest syndrome.
His parents made the difficult decision to turn off his life-support machine.
Recounting the emotional moment they bid farewell, his mother Rina shared on This Morning: “We didn’t want to switch it off – it wasn’t fair on his little body to go through this.”
“He smiled when the machine was turned off, they took him into another room and we said our last goodbyes before he was taken down and he had a smile on his face.”
Rina added: “You’re always praying for the last minute miracle his brothers and sisters and his uncles were all there beside him.”
Karanbir had an EpiPen available at school, but it was found to be almost a year out of date. This outdated EpiPen was the only adrenaline administered before he suffered cardiac arrest.
The boy who threw the cheese claimed he was merely ‘playing around’ and was unaware of Karanbir’s dairy allergy.
While such severe allergic reactions from skin contact are rare, they are generally not fatal.
Dr. Adam Fox, a paediatric allergy consultant, stated during the 2019 inquest, according to Sky News: “Where this case is extraordinarily unusual is the nature of the event that led to the anaphylaxis.”
“Because severe allergic reactions through skin contact are very, very uncommon indeed, and if it was skin contact alone that caused, in this case fatal, anaphylaxis, I believe that to be unprecedented.”
“I have been unable to find any case reports. I’ve canvassed widely around this and I’m not aware of any fatal cases.”
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