In The News
The unfortunate death of a little girl at a school on January 3 made me realize that I never put my two cents out here on a book I recently read. If you want to read articles about the little girl, Ammaria Johnson, aged 7, you can find them anywhere on the web. I don't want to trivialize this little girl's life, or her death, but I also don't actually have the facts, so I hesitate to put anything here on the blog. I would like to say, though, that it seems as if her death could have been easily prevented.
Ammaria had food allergies, specifically, she died from a peanut allergy. According to some websites, a friend gave her a peanut on the playground, the school didn't have the correct medicine to deal with it, and she died. I don't mean to sound judgmental. I am not the authority on any allergy, but I feel as though there so many things wrong with that picture, I am not certain where to start.
My only experience with allergies has been through a friend of mine. Her daughter has a severe peanut allergy, among other allergies, and through this friend and her daughter, I have learned so much about food allergies. What they are, how severe they can be, or how mild they also can be. How to try to avoid exposure, and how to educate yourself, your family, your friends. When I read about the death of Ammaria, my skin wanted to crawl. A couple of questions popped up in my head, and I just couldn't get them out.
While I don't know for certain, I am guessing that Ammaria's death might be a case where an accident happened. Ammaria might have been out on the playground, having a great time playing in the sun with good friends, and just didn't think about what she was about to do. At that young age, circumstances will arise all the time where "not thinking" is bound to happen.
Aside from her death, I find it so sad that there wasn't a system in place to cancel out her mistake. I don't know why there wasn't medication in the front office. As I said above, I know Epipens are expensive, but Benadryl is not, and administration of Benadryl, even if you can get just a minute bit into the child, can buy you some time. Ammaria's death hopefully will make every school district out there evaluate their allergy policies. Are the policies currently in place enough to prevent another death? And are the teachers and staff educated in how to deal with an allergic reaction? I would hope so.
So, amongst all the news about Ammaria Johnson, it reminded me of Sandra Beasley's, Don't Kill The Birthday Girl: Tales From An Allergic Life. This book was an eye opening read for me, in many ways, and a title I would suggest anyone with allergies, or in contact with someone with allergies, should read.
As the title implies, Sandra Beasley writes about her life growing up with allergies. She is a young (early 30s) woman who has many diagnosed allergies: beef, shellfish, soy, pinenuts, mango, mustard, dairy and egg, to name a few. She is, surprisingly, not allergic to peanuts. However, she grew up in a time when food allergies were just starting to rear their ugly heads a bit more. She grew up in a time when restaurants didn't realize that you can't just pull the mango out of an already prepared fruit salad and hand it to the person that requested a fruit salad, no mango.
Beasley's background is in writing, although the jacket tells that she is a poet, and her book reads easily. It wasn't too sciency, too preachy, or too scary, all of which could have happened in the wrong hands. She relays memories using vivid descriptions, and really emphasizes all of the situations that we -- as people without allergies -- take for granted.
Some of the things she and others like her need to worry about, but I have never even thought of? The presence of wheat in Play-Doh (although I have noticed the warning on the package), snack chips with whey (dairy) in them, and the presence of egg derivatives in baked goods. Beasley talks a lot about her luck over the years, considering that nutrition labels weren't mandatory until 1990, and allergy warnings weren't yet on the radar screen.
Reading her book made me really think that it was amazing that some people, especially those with severe allergies, have managed to survive into adulthood. It was apparent that Sandra Beasley's parents were devoted to helping their child live. They quizzed restaurants and made sure to bring snacks to other people's houses. Her parents made her so aware that she was different, and that she needed to be extra careful. You never know when casein is hidden in something now, do you?
Therefore, I was continually amazed at Beasley's lackadaisical and sometimes brazen attitude toward her allergy. This was especially apparent in her teen and college years. I guess this should not surprise me, as kids that age think they are invincible. But Beasley had to be tired of dealing with the reaction process. So why, why, would you purposefully eat french fries off of a plate that also held a hamburger? Remember, she is allergic to beef! She knowingly did this! And so, for the next 24 hours, she sat in a Benadryl induced haze until it was over.
At one point, she talks about her experience at a post graduation party for college (p.44):
That description floored me! Hoping for the best? She ended up, after an hour, having to get her boyfriend to take her to the ER, where she sat around the lobby, waiting for the Benadryl to work. Her memories of instances like that, actually made me angry. She was so cavalier about this allergy, and yet she got so mad at other people when they didn't take her allergies seriously. How can you ask someone else to take your allergy seriously when it seems that you don't yourself?
This isn't a science based writing, and Beasley didn't mean for it to be. But I almost put the book down early on, for I wasn't sure how accurate the writing was going to be. In my opinion and because of my training, when one cites a study within the text, one then provides the exact research article's tidbits, preferably in a footnote, or with a works cited page at the end. Beasley did not do this. I paged through to the back, looking for a works cited page so that I could find the name of the study to which she referred. It wasn't there. I found my answer in her acknowledgments, where she lists the journals she drew upon for the articles and abstracts. It seemed legit, so I went back to reading.
I am glad I did finish the book. As scary as it was, I would encourage young kids to read it when they are older, so that they can appreciate all the things that could happen, and to see how lucky one person turned out to be. I'd encourage libraries to stock it, including high school libraries. Perhaps her book can help further educate the lay people on the truths and the myths of allergies, and how one person struggles, for life. Her story could have turned out completely different. It is unfortunate that Ammaria's story did not.
Ammaria had food allergies, specifically, she died from a peanut allergy. According to some websites, a friend gave her a peanut on the playground, the school didn't have the correct medicine to deal with it, and she died. I don't mean to sound judgmental. I am not the authority on any allergy, but I feel as though there so many things wrong with that picture, I am not certain where to start.
My only experience with allergies has been through a friend of mine. Her daughter has a severe peanut allergy, among other allergies, and through this friend and her daughter, I have learned so much about food allergies. What they are, how severe they can be, or how mild they also can be. How to try to avoid exposure, and how to educate yourself, your family, your friends. When I read about the death of Ammaria, my skin wanted to crawl. A couple of questions popped up in my head, and I just couldn't get them out.
- Did the family tell the school about her allergy? If not, the family was negligent.
- If Ammaria had a documented case of peanut allergy, why didn't the school have an Epipen or Benadryl on hand? Again, negligence, this time on the part of the school and the parents. Where was her advocate?
- More importantly, why wasn't Ammaria just wearing an Epipen? I realize that money could be an issue here, and with #2, which could get me started on healthcare in America. I won't start, for the sake of brevity.
- Did Ammaria just make a mistake, a quick bad call in judgment, by taking something she knew was bad for her, or was there malicious intent on the part of the kid who gave her the peanut? Was it disguised somehow? This, perhaps, we'll never know.
While I don't know for certain, I am guessing that Ammaria's death might be a case where an accident happened. Ammaria might have been out on the playground, having a great time playing in the sun with good friends, and just didn't think about what she was about to do. At that young age, circumstances will arise all the time where "not thinking" is bound to happen.
Aside from her death, I find it so sad that there wasn't a system in place to cancel out her mistake. I don't know why there wasn't medication in the front office. As I said above, I know Epipens are expensive, but Benadryl is not, and administration of Benadryl, even if you can get just a minute bit into the child, can buy you some time. Ammaria's death hopefully will make every school district out there evaluate their allergy policies. Are the policies currently in place enough to prevent another death? And are the teachers and staff educated in how to deal with an allergic reaction? I would hope so.
So, amongst all the news about Ammaria Johnson, it reminded me of Sandra Beasley's, Don't Kill The Birthday Girl: Tales From An Allergic Life. This book was an eye opening read for me, in many ways, and a title I would suggest anyone with allergies, or in contact with someone with allergies, should read.
As the title implies, Sandra Beasley writes about her life growing up with allergies. She is a young (early 30s) woman who has many diagnosed allergies: beef, shellfish, soy, pinenuts, mango, mustard, dairy and egg, to name a few. She is, surprisingly, not allergic to peanuts. However, she grew up in a time when food allergies were just starting to rear their ugly heads a bit more. She grew up in a time when restaurants didn't realize that you can't just pull the mango out of an already prepared fruit salad and hand it to the person that requested a fruit salad, no mango.
Beasley's background is in writing, although the jacket tells that she is a poet, and her book reads easily. It wasn't too sciency, too preachy, or too scary, all of which could have happened in the wrong hands. She relays memories using vivid descriptions, and really emphasizes all of the situations that we -- as people without allergies -- take for granted.
Some of the things she and others like her need to worry about, but I have never even thought of? The presence of wheat in Play-Doh (although I have noticed the warning on the package), snack chips with whey (dairy) in them, and the presence of egg derivatives in baked goods. Beasley talks a lot about her luck over the years, considering that nutrition labels weren't mandatory until 1990, and allergy warnings weren't yet on the radar screen.
Reading her book made me really think that it was amazing that some people, especially those with severe allergies, have managed to survive into adulthood. It was apparent that Sandra Beasley's parents were devoted to helping their child live. They quizzed restaurants and made sure to bring snacks to other people's houses. Her parents made her so aware that she was different, and that she needed to be extra careful. You never know when casein is hidden in something now, do you?
Therefore, I was continually amazed at Beasley's lackadaisical and sometimes brazen attitude toward her allergy. This was especially apparent in her teen and college years. I guess this should not surprise me, as kids that age think they are invincible. But Beasley had to be tired of dealing with the reaction process. So why, why, would you purposefully eat french fries off of a plate that also held a hamburger? Remember, she is allergic to beef! She knowingly did this! And so, for the next 24 hours, she sat in a Benadryl induced haze until it was over.
At one point, she talks about her experience at a post graduation party for college (p.44):
...my drunken housemates decided to turn beer pong into "White Russian pong," sending a spray of milk and Kahlua into the air every time someone plunked a Ping-Pong ball into a Solo cup. I didn't object. I stood by, cheering for a team, not touching anything, hoping for the best.
That description floored me! Hoping for the best? She ended up, after an hour, having to get her boyfriend to take her to the ER, where she sat around the lobby, waiting for the Benadryl to work. Her memories of instances like that, actually made me angry. She was so cavalier about this allergy, and yet she got so mad at other people when they didn't take her allergies seriously. How can you ask someone else to take your allergy seriously when it seems that you don't yourself?
This isn't a science based writing, and Beasley didn't mean for it to be. But I almost put the book down early on, for I wasn't sure how accurate the writing was going to be. In my opinion and because of my training, when one cites a study within the text, one then provides the exact research article's tidbits, preferably in a footnote, or with a works cited page at the end. Beasley did not do this. I paged through to the back, looking for a works cited page so that I could find the name of the study to which she referred. It wasn't there. I found my answer in her acknowledgments, where she lists the journals she drew upon for the articles and abstracts. It seemed legit, so I went back to reading.
I am glad I did finish the book. As scary as it was, I would encourage young kids to read it when they are older, so that they can appreciate all the things that could happen, and to see how lucky one person turned out to be. I'd encourage libraries to stock it, including high school libraries. Perhaps her book can help further educate the lay people on the truths and the myths of allergies, and how one person struggles, for life. Her story could have turned out completely different. It is unfortunate that Ammaria's story did not.
Comments