More and more children are dealing with food allergies which in turn creates a worrying climate for parents and educators.
According to a study by FAIR health, severe allergic reactions to food increased by nearly 400 percent between 2007-2016.
For 12-year-old Amanda Huynh, from Georgia, she had suffered with asthma and a severe peanut allergy since she was three years old. One day on her way home from school on the bus she took a bite of a granola bar – her usual after school snack.
As soon as she bit into it “she began to feel sick and was rushed to the high school. Once there, school nurses were able to treat her with an EpiPen until an ambulance arrived.”
But sadly, the reaction had already begun. Once an ambulance arrived at the high school, Amanda was taken to a hospital eight miles away. She was then airlifted to a children’s hospital. After fighting the reaction for a day, doctors told Amanda’s family that if she pulled through, she would have severe brain damage.
“She would not be the same person she use to be. Her brain had been severely damaged. This morning the doctors declared her braindead and her body is not responsive,” her brother wrote on a GoFundMe page.
Tragically, Amanda passed away the next day. Her brother Dillon created a GoFundMe page just before her death to bring awareness to the allergy community and to raise money for her funeral and family. The fundraiser with a $2,000 goal has since raised almost $12,000.
“Please watch over your children,” Dillon wrote. “Peanut Allergies are very dangerous and I don’t want you to suffer through the same thing Amanda went through.”
“Amanda was so bright, she was so smart and energetic all the time,” he wrote. “The last time she said to me was that she was going to the skating rink and gave me 2 hugs before she went off with her friends. The last words she said to my mom were ‘Is Dillon coming home tonight? I love you mom’ as she walked onto the bus to school.”
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