Preventable Death: Grilled Cheese
If you are told a child in your care has a severe food allergy, believe them. Don’t kill a three-year-old with a grilled cheese sandwich.
According to his parents, staff at the preschool knew about his severe dairy allergy, but an adult gave him the cheese sandwich anyway. He ate it, went into anaphylactic shock, and died in the emergency room. No word on whether they gave him epinephrine. (New…
Horrific.
So was the person who gave him the sandwich charged with negligent homicide? (I can read the article because I’ve used my allotment for the month.)
There’s an article at Allergic Living with some more info now (and no paywall), but the upshot is that it’s still under investigation. It’s not even clear at this point whether the specific person who gave him the sandwich was aware of the allergy (though they certainly should have been), or whether they gave him epinephrine, though it is clear that:
- The school was aware of his allergy
- The school didn’t call 911, they called his mother instead.
The school has been closed pending the investigation results, and new directives have been issued that childcare staff will call 911 in the event of a medical emergency.
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