One little child died after eating cake. His untimely demise has acted as a wake-up call to parents worldwide that food allergies are no joke anymore. Although some allergies are evident and elicit an instant response, others take time to develop and worsen with each encounter.
Merrill Debbs is now coming out to share her terrible experience with her son Oakley, who died after eating cake, in order to rescue other parents from the agony of witnessing their kid die as a result of a food allergy.
Debbs never took food allergies seriously since she didn’t know anything about them. She’d chuckle when she saw someone on TV mocking someone with a “peanut” allergy or sneer when she heard someone choose the “gluten-free” option at a restaurant.
Her son, on the other hand, was in danger. He had asthma and a minor peanut and tree nut allergy.
His life suddenly changed after he ate a hefty piece of pound cake the day before Thanksgiving. The cake was not nut-free, despite Oakley’s belief. It has walnuts baked into it. It was too late for him to realize he had eaten the possibly harmful chemical; the response had already begun. It was, though, merely a little blister. Oakley took a couple of Benadryl and went about his business.
Everything vanished, Debbs said. Whatever was going on within him, they had no idea. He seemed to be in good health. He went outside to play with his cousins before taking a shower and brushing his teeth.
Although the blister had vanished, Oakley’s anguish and suffering had only worsened. His mom didn’t think it had anything to do with his nut sensitivity.
His belly ached, and Oakley complained to his mother. Suddenly, he began vomiting. Debbs assumed he was finished responding, as whatever he had ingested had to have come back up. She was mistaken.
He is getting ill again, he informed his mother minutes later.
He began vomiting, and it was a whirlwind of problems, Debbs said. They dialed 9-1-1. He was blue by the time the ambulance arrived, some 10 minutes later.
Oakley died 90 minutes after eating the walnut. His airways closed, and his heart stopped pumping.
Debbs established the Red Sneaker Foundation in order to make sense of her son’s tragic death. It assists in informing parents about the severity of food allergies.
Debbs added that she does not believe his gorgeous, wonderful, brilliant, and charming kid should have died. She is also advocating for a ban on all nuts in schools.
Dr. Ruchi Gupta, an associate professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and the head of Northwestern’s Food Allergies Outcomes Program, stated that they don’t know enough about delayed responses like these that seem to improve but then swiftly escalate to death, Gupta added. That is why it is vital to understand how to recognize a response as well as when and how to utilize epinephrine.
