13-year-old boy with severe food allergies died after having piece of cheese thrown at him by classmate
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: ITV/BBC
A 13-year-old boy tragically died after a piece of cheese was thrown at him.
On June 28, 2017, Karanbir Cheema was at school in London, UK, when tragedy struck.
The teenager, who was allergic to a number of things including dairy, wheat, gluten, egg, milk and tree nuts, had a piece of cheese thrown at him by a classmate.
Advert
While Karanbir did not ingest the cheese, it made contact with his skin and hit the schoolboy's neck.
Shortly after he was rushed off to hospital in critical condition.
Sadly Karanbir died days after the ordeal at Great Ormond Street Hospital. His cause of death was later ruled as post-cardiac arrest syndrome.
The teenager's parents had to opt to turn Karanbir's life-support machine off.
Recalling the harrowing moment they said their goodbyes, his mom Rina said on This Morning: "We didn't want to switch it off - it wasn't fair on his little body to go through this.
"He smiled when the machine was turned off, they took him into another room and we said our last goodbyes before he was taken down and he had a smile on his face."
She added: "You're always praying for the last minute miracle his brothers and sisters and his uncles were all there beside him."
Karanbir had an EpiPen with him at school, but it was later revealed that the medication was almost a year out of date. It was the only adrenaline administered before the teenager suffered cardiac arrest.
The boy who threw the cheese at Karanbir claimed he was only 'playing around' and alleged that he wasn't aware of his allergies to dairy.
While skin contact has caused severe allergic reactions like this before, it's seldom proven fatal.
Dr Adam Fox, a paediatric allergy consultant, told the inquest into his death in 2019, as per Sky News: "Where this case is extraordinarily unusual is the nature of the event that led to the anaphylaxis.
"Because severe allergic reactions through skin contact are very, very uncommon indeed, and if it was skin contact alone that caused, in this case fatal, anaphylaxis, I believe that to be unprecedented.
"I have been unable to find any case reports. I've canvassed widely around this and I'm not aware of any fatal cases."
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact The Compassionate Friends on (877) 969-0010.