The death of 7-year-old Virginia girl Ammaria Johnson on January 3rd has left her community extremely sad. The girl died after being given a peanut by a student while on the school’s playground.
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The NY Daily News reported that Ammaria complained about having trouble breathing and hives shortly after eating the peanut. She then fell into cardiac arrest before paramedics arrived.
Ammaria was announced dead just moments after arriving at a local neighborhood hospital.
Although police say that no criminal behavior was conducted, Ammaria’s mother, Laura Pendleton insists that her daughter has an allergy plan with the school and is concerned about why she was not given Benadryl during her allergic reaction.
This incident certainly brings up the question of whether or not schools should make a greater effort to ensure this situation does not happen often. Peanut allergies have tripled in over 10 years, with 2 in every 100 children being allergic to the nut.
Doctor Dan Atkins commented on the incident saying:
“There are kids who don’t know they’re food allergic until they get into the food… In that situation, it would be good to have an EpiPen available.”
There certainly needs to be a larger effort in protecting students with allergies. We cannot allow deaths when incidents like this could be easily avoided.
Our condolences go out to the family of Ammaria.
