Hack
Posted on 12/22/2004 8:48:11 PM PST by ijcr
A woman with a severe allergy to tomatoes died after opening a tin of spaghetti bolognese, it emerged yesterday.
Raya French, 37, a part-time receptionist from Tankerton in Kent, was preparing dinner for her four children two weeks ago when the tomato sauce in the can sent her into anaphylactic shock.
She was taken to hospital, but never regained consciousness. She was allowed to die four days later after her family decided that she had no chance of survival.
Mrs French developed an allergy to raw tomatoes three years ago, and would come out in hives and suffer asthma attacks. Recently the reactions had become more severe.
Her husband, Stephen, said yesterday that despite what had happened, his wife would still want their children - Alexandra, 15, Tom, 10, Maddison, six, and Louis, four - to enjoy the festive season.
"It's been a very difficult time, but we're working towards Christmas," he said.
Canon Patrick Sales, the vicar of All Saints church in nearby Whitstable, said that more than 300 people had attended her funeral last Wednesday.
"She was a governor at the local school where her children were pupils.
"She knew a lot of people in the community and there was a big response to her death."
Mr Sales said of Mrs French's husband and children: "They have been very brave and positive about all this."
I have a few food allergies (nuts, watermelon, avocado) that have snuck up on me over the past couple years. I am pretty irritated with the whole deal. I would second the advice to reconsider doing the prepping of any foods with them in it after reading this.
That's what I was thinking
Sounds like she got anti-oxidated.
Something stinks here.
It is indeed puzzling... If it had happened here it would make a lot of sense (multimillion lawsuit), but in England they have strict limits...
a)..Why would a woman with a severe allergy to tomatoes choose to feed bolognaise sauce to her family?
---She was probably out of fish and chips.
b)...How are they planning on being festive when their mother died a week ago?
---If they're like most Brits, getting good and plowed, I'd reckon.
ROFLMAO.
I also have an allergy to onions (and garlic). Nothing life-threatening, but it's a continuous inconvenience.
Here's what I don't understand. I think that most folks who have a food allergy (like us) will go to extreme lengths to avoid exposure. We develop exposure avoidance habits that become quite elaborate.
Perhaps she did not realize how just much the severity of the allergy had increased .
I know I am almost obsessive about avoiding onions!! I am not allergic to garlic though.
The cognitive dissonance here is OFF THE EFFING SCALE!
That's what I thought, too. Strange story.
Chortle!!
I don't have that kind of reaction to tomatoes but you can still keep 'em. Good for ketchup and that's about it.
I was thinking along the same lines then remembered the deal with 'peanuts' and some schools banning peanut butter from being brought in lunches. I guess the smell can be enough.
Interesting. My sister used to get warts on her hands whenever she smoked Merit menthol cigarettes. She used to switch brands now and then and that was how she noticed it. I knew of two other people that smoked Merit menthol and they had warts on their hands. When I mentioned my sister's noticing that when she changed brands the warts went away, these two guys changed brands and theirs went away too. The one even tried them again later, only to have his warts return. He stopped smoking Merit menthol after that.
Kins of strange how we all are different and certain things will affect us differently.
What sort of physical symptoms do you experience?
My mother has that problem when people wear a musk based perfume. It constricts my mother's throat.
I get something similar. I can drink orange juice, or grapefruit juice (thought I don't particularly like grapefruit juice), and I can drink vodka, BUT, I can't mix the orange or grapefrut juices with vodka. As soon as I do that, one drink and my throat feels like it swells inside to where its difficult to swallow.
You know, that was my first thought. Her allergist says that while that may have started the whole thing, the end result is still the allergy to these fruits. And she does tend to buy organic, at least now.
That's not an allergy. Hazelnut coffee just plain stinks.
I can't stand flavored coffees, but hazelnut is the worst and stinkiest. Makes me gag and shudder. But if you got rid of my sense of smell for me, I could probably drink it just fine.
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