Cheese Allergy incident in West London
A 13-year-old boy died in July 2017, ten days after he fell unconscious when cheese was thrown at him during break time at a school in West London. They boy was known to be suffering from allergies to dairy, wheat, gluten, eggs and nuts and suffered from asthma and eczema.
The cheese thrown at Karan, no bigger than half the size of a post-It note, caused an 'extraordinary reaction' after coming into contact with his skin, one which an expert at the inquest described as 'unprecedented' in medical circles.
The boy, who had previously been reprimanded for throwing food at other pupils, knew that his friend was allergic to bread, but didn't know about his dairy allergy.
All of the available evidence pointed to the cheese being responsible for the boy's death.
It was also later revealed that school was given EpiPen, antihistamine medicine, a spare asthma pump and hydrocortisone cream, to be kept in a personal medical box in the school office. It was also revealed that timely administration of EpiPen or Emergency help in time may have saved the child.
The school clarified that there was 'a lack of clarity and consistency in guidance provided to schools' in managing situations like this.
This goes on to show how severe an allergy reaction can be and it can be disastrous if no timely intervention is made.
