The story of the young man who died at his school after receiving a slice of cheese on his face

Karanbir Cheema, a 13-year-old boy, died of severe anaphylactic shock at his west London school when a classmate threw a slice of cheese in his face. The case occurred in June 2017 at William Perkin School in Greenford, but he made the headlines again when he reached British justice.

The cause of the reaction was what made it “extraordinarily unusual,” Fox said in a statement to the court where an investigation into Cheema’s death was being conducted.

Now Adam Fox, a pediatric allergy specialist at Evelina Children’s Hospital in London, said severe skin contact reactions are “very rare” and that he was “not aware of any other cases. deadly”.

For her part, medical examiner Mary Hassell, who was also part of this investigation, He said the boy’s action in throwing the cheese at Cheema was “childish and foolish” but was not calculated to hurt her.

The teenager was thrown a piece of cheese half the size of a tissue. Ten days later, the tremendous allergic reaction it produced ended in his death.

The court hearing of the case concluded that the student who assaulted him had already been warned for throwing food at other students.

The slice landed on Cheema’s neck and caused an “unprecedented” reaction. You started to have trouble breathing and scratched your skin. “He took off his shirt, screamed and ran across the room in panic. He couldn’t breathe,” described coroner Mary Hassell.

According to his mother Rina, Karanbir was very allergic to wheat, gluten, eggs and tree nuts. In addition, he suffered from asthma and atopic eczema. The young man checked food labels all the time to find out what he could and could not eat.

At the time of the allergic shock, the school injected her with EpiPen, an epinephrine device to treat life-threatening allergies. And then the young man was rushed to hospital. Soon after, Cheema went into cardiac arrest. The lack of oxygen caused severe brain damage and he died two weeks later.

Now Cheema’s family are asking for more school education on how allergies can be fatal. They even demanded that photos be shown on the dramatic consequences for young people.