SAGUENAY, Quebec - A 15-year-old girl with a peanut allergy died after kissing her boyfriend, who had just eaten a peanut butter snack, hospital officials said Monday.




Christina Desforges died in a Quebec hospital Wednesday after doctors were unable to treat her allergic reaction to the kiss the previous weekend.

Desforges, who lived in Saguenay, about 155 miles north of Quebec City, was almost immediately given a shot of adrenaline, a standard tool for treating the anaphylactic shock brought on by a peanut allergy, officials said.

An autopsy was being performed. Dr. Nina Verreault, an allergist at the Chicoutimi Hospital in Saguenay, declined to comment on the case.

The symptoms of peanut allergy can include hives, plunging blood pressure and swelling of the face and throat, which can block breathing.

Peanut allergies have been rising in recent decades. The reason remains unclear but one study found that baby creams or lotions with peanut oil may cause children to develop allergies later in life.

About 1.5 million Americans are severely allergic to even the smallest trace of peanuts and peanut allergies account for 50 to 100 deaths in the United States each year. Canadian figures were not immediately available

Allergies can be fatal

That is awful...and the poor lad living with that

I thought this was going to be a joke about a teen kissing nuts


It's really scarey to think that people can die from this kind of thing

That's murder. You don't forget shit like that and she wouldn't let him forget. Everybody I know that has peanut allergies like that will tell you within the first 5 seconds of meetin you, just to make sure you don't come breathin your fatal reese's pieces in their atmosphere. My drummer's girl has those allergies, but not as severe as this girl. And the school district I work in doesn't allow peanut butter and jelly to be brought on field trips, as the children will be away from the nurse and her epinephrine injection pen.

Weird thing is, it seems like people are just startin to develop these allergies. I never heard about this when I was a kid 15 years ago.

that is truly sad



that poor boy...

and her parents who have probably spent her entire life sheilding her from this allergy, damn who knew a kiss could be fatal.

TheSmyrk said:

Idiot

Poor boy. Imagine how he must feel. And her parents and family.

just horrible.

it's weird that they haven't developed something for such real
severe allergies yet.

something to strenghten the body against such a shock. i guess
it would be virtually impossible to prevent you from having an
attack once you do eat a product with traces of nuts in them,
however it does seem logical that one would be able to provide
a kind of drug to be taken at regular intervals which could be
a preventative, something to lessen the effects of an attack.

i mean, if it kills 100 people in the US alone each year it'd
seem to me that it probably kills 500 people a year worldwide.

but that's probably not profitable enough to develope a good
drug for. man what a shitty world we live in sometimes.

I'm curious though, what the exact compound in the peanut is
that triggers such absurdly severe reaction in peole who are
allergic to it.

This interests me, i'm kind of a geek concerning nutrition
and food on a molecular level but i've never read up on the
reasons for food like shellfish or peanuts causing shock.

luv4u said:

that is very sad... he should've known tho... he really should've known.

I can say from personal experience that some allergies come and go and come back again, and I have this suspicion that the long term use of certain antibiotics can trigger allergies, because I didn´t have any before that.

There´s also a book by a British author about this, but I don´t remember the name, it came out in 1992.

Additives in food also play a major role. For instance, a lot of formerly communist countries had much less allergies before becoming capitalistic, for instance East Germany before it got reunited with West Germany. The number of people with allergies increased dramatically by 90 % in the first ten years after the reunification.

Too much cleanliness and not enough breastfeeding also play an important part.
Cleanliness is a good thing, but letting a kid grow up in an almost sterile environment can lead to allergies that a "countryboy" might never develop.

This is not the type of shit I wanna read with me having an 8yo girl who is severely allergic to nuts.

bkw said:

How awful!

This truly is a sad story. You wanna hear something else that I feel is messed up? The fact that some airlines still give peanuts as a snack during their flights. I recently flew on a plane (Continental Airlines to be exact), and they gave all the passengers peanuts both on the flight to my destination as well as on the flight to my destination back home.

Now that is messed up, because I always think of someone eating a peanut (perhaps not realizing just how allergic they are to them), having a severe reaction and winding up losing their life. Now I know that sounds morbid, but just imagine if this actually happened. The airlines would likely have one hefty lawsuit on their hands, for sure. It makes no sense to me as to why airlines insist on giving people peanuts to eat, when there are sooooo many people who are allergic to them.

I remember back in the day when they used to give you a choice of either peanuts or pretzels. I think the airlines would be better off serving pretzels, since there are probably less people who would be allergic to them than there are people who have peanut allergies. It makes no sense to me.

At the summer camp that I used to work at, we had a boy that was hyper-allergic to latex.

They had to make sure that the nurses room only had rubber gloves and we made sure that no-one would bring baloons. He would also have to be careful when eating out and we would check if the chefs or kitchen staff had used latex gloves.
It's going to really suck when he gets older with condoms. I have never heard of anyone else being allergic to latex before.

this is sad... that's why i try not to kiss anybody who has just had nuts in their mouth

KoolEaze said:

I heard that report as well!!!
I'm sure that the toxic environment in which we live also plays a major role.

psychodelicide said:

Except this guy...

JimmyNothing said:

I used to work with a lady who was allergic to wheat, so she couldn't eat most bread products (including pretzels). Even just a small tiny piece of something made with wheat made her break out in hives real bad. So maybe the idea of giving people pretzels on a plane is not such a great idea either.

The difficult part of this is, there is a lot out there that has been cooked in peanut oil, or even traveled on the same conveyer belt in the factory, so to assume that this guy put a reeses or something in his mouth and then kissed his girlfriend without considering her health is kind of ridiculous. Cheezits are on the warning list for nut allergies, as are a bunch of crackers and such, that you would never think had anything to do with nuts.

luv4u said:

POST CAN BE OBVIOUS

POOK said:

bkw said:

My five-year old daughter has a slight allergy to peanuts. My niece has a severe allergy and carries around a shot.

TheSmyrk said:

I wouldn't agree that it's murder, but I've got to wonder what the fuck was wrong with that kid?

He god damned well better feel guilty.

Seriously -who doesn't know if their loved one has a fatal allergy? Who just forgets like that? Maybe he was one of those people that doesn't believe in allergies, or doesn't believe they can be that serious.


I have allergies -most of which send me into anaphylactic shock if I'm exposed. I've been rushed to the emergency room god knows how many times now. Trust me when I say that experiencing an anaphylactic reaction is one of the scariest things that's ever happened to me. I've been in car accidents and the feeling doesn't even compare.

Your blood pressure drops and you feel ice cold, your throat and mouth swell big enough to block air passages, you become dizzy, lightheaded and disoriented. You might even lose consciousness. And you can't help but panic a little, regardless of how many times it's happened to you.



That stupid fucker...

psychodelicide said:

Even worse is when airlines ignore special meal requests. Whether it's allergies or other special diets it seems to happen a lot.

What I can't get over is the number of restaurants who insist on using nut products in things you wouldn't expect them in, like cream sauces and soups and then don't bother to mention that. What the fuck? It's one of the most common allergeis and one of the most likely to be severe. I don't care if it supposed to enhance flavour -if it can kill people at least have the decency to mention that you use it.

Ambulance rides from dinner are no fun.

bluesbaby said:

Er, the articel states outright he'd just "eaten a peanut butter snack". Doesn't sound like cheesey goodness to me.

KoolEaze said:

my boys should not get allergic to anything then, according to this theory. Breastfed until 12 months and our place has lots of dirt.

charlottegelin said:

...well...are they...?

meow85 said:

I'll bet they're not. With the number of people who have allergies, a restaurant almost needs to list all of the ingredients in each of their dishes, so a person knows what's in them before they place their order.

psychodelicide said:

I don't understand why they don't.

meow85 said:

Me neither, I think they should. It could save a life.