Schoolboy who suffered two heart attacks after being given a chocolate by teacher

[AuntieMaggie]

I don't have children yet but this really made me cry here

I hope the poor boy recovers soon :(

We have a family history of hayfever, so I wonder if it's related? It doesn't seem to effect his mouth though, no itching/swelling as far as I can tell.

my ds1 has a severe nut allergy. His father (ExP) regularly takes risks with his condition. I live in constant fear of something like this happening

I hope that poor lad makes a full recovery and the school learns from this. Too many people don't take allergy seriously.

Horrifying for everyone concerned.

I don't think a 7 yr old can be expected to self police himself regarding an allergy BUT I am surprised he went ahead and ate it, knowing he has a serious allergy, and has had cardiac arrest before. It's fairly clear that a box of mixed chocolates like that might contain nuts, and I am surprised he didn't speak up and say something, but just ate it. I am sure with such a serious allery, he must be quite used to not eating chocolates because of possible cross-contamination

are you a parent to a child with a proper allergy to ie peanuts? the problem with having a reaction if you have digested something you are allergic to is that you NEVER know when the reaction will peak/how bad the reaction is THAT is why children who are genuinely allergic have epi pens. it is fucking frightening more than i can put into words how scary it is to be helpless sitting and watching your childs reaction get worse and worse, first her ears go red at the edges (one particular time she had a reaction), then she started to come up in urticaria which eventually spread over her whole body, oddly enough apart from her buttocks. she was red raw, her body was so swollen and inflamed, she was in so much pain, her eyes were swollen so she could not open them, this peaked and after about 2 hours slowly went down, all the while i am looking at the colour of her lips (checking for blueness) and listening to her breathing incase it started to sound 'funny' although it remained normal, oh yes, then she projectile vomited for about 15 minutes. i needed to have the bloody pen even though thank the lord i didn't use the bloody thing, alright. mil is intolerent to wheat, she suffers pain from this however her life is never in danger by eating something with wheat in

violethill - i think i may know why the kid ate it. dd last year had an ice lolly at a party as all the other children had one and she desperately didn't want to be left out. i can't believe she did this as i had always trusted her and thought i had done a good job at enstalling into her fear (as much as i hate having to) about what could happen if she ate the wrong thing but she STILL ate the ice cream. sometimes kids with allergies just get really carried away with being upset and put their feelings before their safety. dd rarely has reactions (fingers crossed) so she forgets how vile and scary they are, i on the other hand will never forget. whe i think about it i fear for her safety for when she is older and free of my protecting her and she fends for herself/has a social life

i think it would be good if the school nurse in ie infants/juniors DID carry two 'spare' epi pens incase a child had a reaction that wasn't labelled allergy kid ie bee sting. epi pens can have a ten month life span which is pretty long, how expensive can it be to purchase two every 10 months. plus the bulk of the teachers, alot of them are trained in using the epi pen which is easy and quick to learn. if you jab an epi' into someone that didn't necessary need it in my training (which i have had lots of times by different drs etc) they say it does not cause any harm. the only danger can be if you accidentally jab ie your finger with the needle some of the remaining adhrenaline can go in your finger and (possibly) cause severe problems but if used properly ie replace cap straight after use, unlikely

Pixie, that's what I have (OAS) and the allergy consultant said the same about the anaphylaxis, but for what ever reason my body still reacted that way to the pecans.

For me, that's the scariest part of the allergy, as bitofcheese says, there's just no way of predicting the severity of each individual reaction. Must be far worse when it's your child and you have to trust others to keep them safe.

has anyones alleergic dc seen this article or heard about the incident

I worry about the amount of fear my ds has at times, he's very careful and I know the fear of a reaction is what will help him be vigilant..horrid though

Epipens are prescribed by a Dr for a specific patient, as a teacher you can't use someone else's epipen on a different child.
You sure as hell can't go jabbing someone having an allergic reaction with a generic adrenaline shot.
School nurse visits once a half term here.
We are a nut free school, children do not eat the sweets given out at birthdays until with their parents, all staff are made aware of the medical needs of the children.

kerry & pixie, i was having a conversation with someone recently who asked me if would ever when out ever use dd's epi' on someone/a child who appeared to be having a food related anaphalactic shock. tricky one, my immediate reaction would be yes i would but think of the implications. wht if it went wrong? people are so quick to put blame on someone else.i have a friend who picked up a child who had fallen in the street as the child must have run ahead of their mother, it only took her a second, she didn't hold onto the child and the mother went MAD at her. i don't like other people touching my child either tbh but i doubt i would have felt like that 20 years ago, we have all been brainwashed to have suspicion on everyone which is truly sad. my dd's school nurse wasn't even allowed to take the splinter out of her finger last week because that meant touching her, ffs, what's it all come to. gong back to original thing, i still don't know if i would use epi, i would possibly but certainly ask mother and get their permission and tell them i am not a qualified nurse etc, but i know i couldn't watch a child possibly die knowing i could well be in a position to save their life

I was a school teacher then a supply teacher - at the school I taught in (a 'top' performing school btw) pictures were on the wall of the staffroom taken in year 7 that stayed there for years. I occasionally looked at the pictures and picked out pupils in my classes, though I would not have had a hope about who was allergic to what.

Nothing else was said to me on the subject of allergies. I had no list, no info, no guidance.

As a supply teacher I turned up at the start of the day, got my paperwork, found the classroom with the help of a map and did my best to control the class and get some work out of them

Allergies? No clue. As a supply you turn up, check the register, set the work, police the little darlings, let them run free when the bell goes.

So yes, poor boy, and poor teacher too

Also re: epipens - only trained teachers were allowed to administer them, other teachers were strictly not allowed under an circumstances to administer them. We would have to run and get help from a trained teacher (wherever they were).

Sounds as if you are no longer teaching, TigerseyeMum. That's a relief.

The notes we leave for supply teachers always include notes on allergies, but that's primary. By secondary, it might be more the child's responsibility.
If it's emergency cover, the class TA will inform.

Why the nasty comment Snowjive?

Yes, it's a relief for me, no more 65 hour weeks Why don't you try it, see how you get on?

Not nasty at all, Goblinchild. TigerseyeMum's attitude is shocking. It is a relief (for those of us who have them) that children with life-threatening allergies are are not in the care of someone who didn't trouble to inform herself of children at risk so that she could take the necessary precautions, or even to find out which teachers were trained to administer an epipen if a child went into anaphylactic shock. School authorities obviously have responsibilities - but so do the individual teachers. It's called the professional duty of care.
I routinely work a 65 hour week, by the way, Tigerseyemum, I'm working now and shall be for many more hours tonight. Not sure what that has to do with anything, though, tbh.

" As a supply you turn up, check the register, set the work, police the little darlings, let them run free when the bell goes."

Yes, but turn up, check the register, police the little darlings and don't ffs DON'T give anyone Quality Street, surely?

The school has the duty of care, it is they who should be ensuring the children are safe and the supply teacher informed as necessary.
She did secondary supply, possibly 150-180 children in a day.
The dynamics of that puts the onus on the school, the children and their peers to be informed, what to do and who to get in an emergency. If I had a child with life-threatening condition, I would ask the school what provision was.
I know what the protocol is for my son with AS when there is a supply.