Warning as 'healthy' 20 year-old is killed by vegetarian ready meal: 'Within 10 minutes she was struggling to breathe'
A grieving mother has warned parents of children with allergies to always be prepared for a deadly reaction—after her 'beautiful' daughter died days after eating a contaminated ready meal.
Jess North, 20, from West Sussex, died on 14 May 2021, five days after suffering a lethal reaction to peanuts that were in a ready meal that she had safely eaten before without problems.
Within 10 minutes of consuming 'a few mouthfuls' of the sweet potato dish, and having left the house to visit friends, Jess called her mother to tell her she was having difficulty breathing.
She attempted to use her Epipen—an autoinjector of adrenaline that relieves extreme allergic reactions—the dose was too low to achieve the desired effect.
The keen athlete had never had to use the emergency treatment before, which meant her prescription had not been updated since she was a child, when the required amount was far lower.
Despite efforts to attempt to save her by doctors at St Richards hospital in Chichester, she died five days later after scans showed no brain activity.
Now her mother Maxine, 59, has vowed to raise awareness of the dangers of severe allergies, and will be attempting physical challenges to generate funds for The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation.
Recalling the day of the fatal reaction, when her world 'fell apart', she told The Argus: 'I was 20 minutes from dishing up the Sunday roast when Jess decided that she didn't want the meat that was on the menu.
'The kitchen was a hive of activity, so I asked her to look in the freezer to see if there was something that she could have in its place.
'She pulled out a pre-made shop bought sweet potato dish saying that she had it before.'
While she was aware the meal could contain peanuts, she'd eaten it previously without suffering a reaction, leading her to believe she'd be safe.
'Once seated for dinner Jess took a couple of mouthfuls of the sweet potato and said she didn't like it, pushed it to one side and ate the vegetables,' Maxine added.
Then she went upstairs, gathered her things and jumped in the car to make the short drive to meet a friend.
Within 10 minutes, Jess called her mother to say she was struggling to breathe—leading Maxine to be immediately convinced that she was having an allergic reaction.
'She was near Arundel on the A27, so I told her to pull over and administer her EpiPen', Maxine said.
Maxine also told Jess to call 999 as soon as she had administered the EpiPen, in line with NHS guidelines.
By the time her parents got there, paramedics were already at the scene.
Maxine continued: 'I have no recollection of how my husband and I got [to Jess]. It's a complete blur.'
Jess was then rushed to St Richards hospital in Chichester as the paramedics fought to keep her alive after she stopped breathing twice on route.
'We had to wait for what seemed like an eternity while they stabilised Jess,' Maxine said.
Jess was on life-support for three days before her doctors felt she was strong enough to undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the damage to her brain.
A life-threatening allergic reaction, known as anaphylaxis, occurs when the immune system mistakenly overreacts and releases a flood of chemicals that send the body into shock, stopping patients from breathing.
As well as rapid organ failure, this can restrict oxygen to the brain, resulting in lethal brain damage.
Other common symptoms of anaphylaxis include swelling of the throat and tongue, difficulty swallowing, coughing, feeling tired, feeling faint or fainting and blue, grey or pale skin.
Maxine said: 'Doctors couldn't reassure us as to the damage t had been done until she woke up'.
The next morning, doctors started to take Jess off of medication, hoping that she would wake up so that they could run further tests.
But Jess didn't show any signs of consciousness. The medical team carried out another MRI which revealed that there was no brain activity.
Jess' parents were then informed by doctors that there was nothing else they could do to help.
'I can't remember much from that point,' said Maxine. 'All I knew was my beautiful baby had gone and our life had changed forever.'
Remarkably, Jess had never had a severe allergic reaction before this point.
'It is always a worry, any allergy parent will tell you that,' said Maxine. 'But it didn't define us.
'We would always ask for an allergen list and would be extremely careful, but we still lived. We went away to places like Thailand, and it was okay'.
Now, Maxine is urging GP practices to start sending reminder alerts to patients with severe allergies to check their EpiPens are the correct dosage.
Jess' tragic death comes amid a new dawn in the treatment of childhood allergies.
Earlier this year, experts at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London announced the promising results of a life-changing trial that saw 14 of 21 people with peanut allergy able to eat peanuts every day without a reaction.
The desensitising process—known as oral immunotherapy—works by getting sufferers to consume microscopic amounts of peanuts, gradually increasing their dosage to build up immunity.
Chief Investigator Professor Stephen Till, Professor of Allergy at King's College London, said: 'Constant fear of life-threatening reactions place a huge burden on people with peanut allergy.
'Although peanut immunotherapy is known to be effective in children, this trial provides preliminary evidence that adults can also be desensitised and that this improves quality of life.'
About one in every 200 adults in the UK—0.5 per cent—has a nut allergy.
Experts estimate that 10 Brits die from an allergic reaction to food each year, with 5,000 people hospitalised for severe reactions.
Children with allergies are considered to be especially at risk from severe reactions as, due to their smaller body size, small amounts of allergens provoke bigger reactions.
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