Generally I think this whole peanut allergy nonsense is gotten totally off the chain. I had a friend in my neighborhood growing up who was allergic, and he was trained to ALWAYS ask when given food if it has peanuts in it. I’m sure he does the same thing as an adult now. I have lots of family and friends with various deadly food allergies, and that’s what they do too. I have one friend that is allergic to shellfish and she’ll say when we’re eating out that she’d prefer everybody at the table abstain just for safety. When you have peanut-free schools, or peanut free classrooms et al, I feel it discourages this kind of lifesaving self-reliance.
A Long Island woman accused of feeding M&Ms that contained traces of peanuts to her disabled and allergic 8-year-old pleaded not guilty Wednesday to an upgraded charge of second-degree murder in the child’s death….After Cirella’s arrest last summer, Assistant District Attorney Zeena Abdi said that Julie, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as an infant and was confined to a wheelchair, had suffered an allergic reaction to something she was fed.
“There was a certain protocol that should have been followed as far as giving care for the allergy that she did not take,” the prosecutor said at the time.
After discovering Julie had died, Cirella told police that she attempted suicide by taking both injections of insulin and drinking the medication, as well as taking an unknown quantity of painkillers. She also told police she attempted to strangle herself with an electrical cord. Cirella and her daughter were found by Cirella’s mother-in-law, Dolores Cirella, who also lived in the Plainview home, when she checked on their preparations for the wedding later that afternoon.
Hmmm no gun in the suicide attempt either. In this instance the mother KNEW the needs and difficulties of her daughter. In this instance feeding peanuts or peanut-laced food items (BTW we’re all familiar with the “May Contain Traces of Peanuts”) is no different than feeding her rat poison. Doubly so when she started showing signs of a reaction, which are anything but subtle.
And then there is the insulin and pain killers, which can kill a person in the right amounts.
Why do people still use the term “Gun Death”?
h/t Barron
This whole recent “ban nuts from schools” kick is one of my pet peeves. Kids with peanut allergies have survived public schools without this ban for well over a century (at least). Why is it suddenly such a horrible crisis?
I know someone who is so severely allergic to tomatoes that she had to go to the ER when somebody spilled chili on her arm. Somehow, she managed to survive through elementary, middle, and high school without making everyone around her go without tomatoes, too.
Heck, at least if these kids have a reaction in school, they’re in an environment where they’re (supposedly) being supervised by (supposedly) responsible people who can call 911 and let them use the epi-pen they should have on them. It should be the best place outside of home or a hospital for it to happen. Plus, they need to learn to watch out for and deal with their allergies, not be sheltered from them. Otherwise, it’s going to be a rude surprise when one of these kids gets out in the real world, gets some old peanut butter residue on their hands from the office break room table, and dies from anaphylaxis when they rub their eyes and don’t know what to do about the reaction.
As I said above, even when my Mom would serve snacks or meals to my childhood friend with a peanut allergy, he’d confirm that there were no peanuts in the food. These are my folks who had separate candy bags on Halloween waiting for my buddy with the peanut allergy, and for my buddy who was diabetic. They even got whole bags of candies while the rest of the trick-or-treaters just got a few pieces of the standard-fare.
He learned to deal with his disability on his own, and without an adult looking out for him….and this was in early elementary school!!!
But Big Daddy .Gov knows best, right?
not what i wanted