Christ, what a fucking day...
 

I went to brunch this morning with a prospective business partner I met over the 'net. Attractive single woman, 25, interested in getting a bunch of design work done. I was hoping for something more than just a business relationship.

We hit it off well, chatted away, and she starts waffling on what she's going to order. She was very slim and in good shape, and I think to myself she's probably worried about the egg dishes going to her thighs. So I tease her about it, and she tells me no, its that she wants to order a shrimp omlette but might "pay for it later" because she'd had some sort of reaction to seafood before.

She gets it after deciding that its only shrimp and there probably isn't much in the omlette anyway.

The food arrives and she starts munching away but stops talking and begins looking very uncomfortable. I tell her to stop eating the omlette, and before I can say anything else she excuses herself to the bathroom. She got up from her chair and had to sit down again because she was too dizzy. Her neck had started flushing by then too, and despite the fact my EMT-P expired years ago and I've forgotten alot of what I've learned, it set the alarm bells off enough that I insisted on calling an ambulance despite her protestations.

Her lips and neck started swelling and huge hives appeared on her arms and legs and she starts getting groggy, so the guy who was sitting across from us and I lay her down on the floor and elevate her legs. We kept her talking, telling her she was going to be fine and that the medics were on the way, but then her voice got hoarse and she started wheezing. She panicked at first and fought for air.. but I held her hand, calmed her down and told her not to worry because the ambulance was on its way and she'd be fine as soon as they gave her an epinephrine injection. I believed it too, because I've seen people come back instantly from nasty allergic reactions after an epi shot. If someone in the restaurant had an epi kit, things would probably have gone much better.

It took less than 5 minutes for the Fire Dept. paramedics to get there, but by the time they wheeled in their shit and got to work she was in full blown anaphylactic shock w/ respiratory arrest. A waitress trained in CPR and I had tried pulmonary rescusitation, but we couldn't get the mask to fit her swollen lips, and no air would go in because her airway was swollen completely shut.

They put her on the ALS monitor which showed a slow but steady pulse, and 2 epi shots later the swelling and flushing had gone down a bit. She didn't start breathing again on her own immediately, so they intubated her and started ventilating manually. I felt a little bit relieved because she had what looked like a reasonable pulse and appeared less flush & swollen.

I didn't ride in the same ambulance, but they told me afterwards that despite additional drugs and fluid, they were unable to get any diastolic blood pressure reading. It was low enough that the steroids, saline and other stuff they pumped into her didn't work as well as it should have, and they lost her pulse on the way to the ER. They tried for an hour to resuscitate her in the trauma center (one of the best in California), to no avail.

I did a police report and they let me go home, but I got a call an hour ago from the cop who did the paperwork. He told me that her mother and younger sister had been located and brought to the hospital, and that, if I agreed to it, they would like to talk to me later.

What the fuck do you say to someone who's daughter you watched expire on a restaurant floor? She trusted me when I held her hand, smiled reassuringly, and told her not to worry... that she'd be fine as soon as the medics got there. And I know that she was lucid and not suffering when she slipped into unconsciousness, but because the reaction progressed so rapidly to complete airway obstruction, there were no "Tell my family I love them" sort of speeches.

Anyway, I have two hours to sit and stew before I have to meet these people. Firing up a bowl or two would be nice, but I think I owe it to them to be sober.

shit man thats horrible - sorry. :(

Damn. That's a sad situation. My condolences to the girl's family, and you. That will be a hard memory to forget.

Thats fucked up. Dont worry. You will never feel the way they do, just loosing a sister and a daughter. My sympathie goes with them and you. Have strength.

Fuck...that's the most horrible thing I've ever heard.

:(

damn, Gutterboy, that's awful. i wouldn't know what to say to them either - what a way to meet strangers!

Wow. Dude, all I can say is that it's no coincidence that you were there, and you had training for situations like this. It was probably her time to go, and you were placed there to make it more comfortable for her.

Props on your effort, sorry for your situation.

sorry to hear very upsetting

Damn... :(

I can't even imagine what that was like.

Truly sorry to hear about it - take care.

kristy

holy shit - that's the most amazing tragic story i've read on a board.


i kept reading expecting to read that once she got treatment everything was ok.

damn that is sad and bizarre.

i think we all know somebody or of somebody who's died of an allergic reaction. In high school my history teacher's younger brother got stung by a bee and died. Another teacher in same school, 25 year old first year teacher, she had to have a cyst removed from her hand, minor thing, whatever they gave her, she had an allergic reaction and died.

holy shit, you killed her.

My first girlfriend in California had that kind of thing with bee stings. We were outside by her pool and a bee flew by, landed near her leg and nailed her. I didn't know she was allergic to them. All of sudden she started turning red and puffing out and was having a hard time breathing. I was freaking cause I didn't know what the hell was happening to her. Luckily we got her to the hospital fast enough that they saved her. But man it was unreal how fast she went into shock.

Sorry to hear about that. That's a tough one you'll never forget.

all that from a few pices of shrimp?

dont be such an asshole

Damn...My condolances to you and her family.

The strange thing isn't the substance, its that she didn't know she was so severely allergic to it.

It takes two contacts with an offending food or insect sting to produce an anaphylactic reaction. The first exposure sensitizes you, the second (and subsequent ones..) cause reactions ranging from flushing & abdominal cramps to hypovolemic shock and vascular collapse. People are usually exposed the common stings and foods that cause these reactions twice as kids, and for that reason its usually kids who die of this stuff.

I would expect she'd been exposed to shrimp more than once in her life.. but I guess it could have been a preservative or some component particular to this sort of shrimp.. maybe it the shrimp/egg combo.. who knows.

jesus christ that fucked up. damn.

It's stories like this that make me paranoid... 26 years old and I've never been stung by a bee. I run like a girl when I see those fat flying fuckers.

"she'd had some sort of reaction to seafood before"

and she decides to eat seafood now? so that's the 2nd time shes eaten seafood at the age of 25?!

Bahahahahahaha! Evil bastard

Anyway, thank you everyone for your kind words. For some reason I feel better about having to face her parents.

Gotta get back to the hospital now. For moral support I've preloaded my hand pipe with a tightly packed bowl of green for when I get done.

Fucked up :(

Allergies can stay dormant for years, or just very weak.

Good luck dude, sorry to hear about it.

sorry to hear that.... it will be very hard to forget.....

a few years ago I left my house to go pick up my friend. I saw a car on the way go out of control and was wrapped around a pole. Didnt think anything of it until I got to my friends house and was very worried about his dad because he was diabetic and it was a little after dinner time and he was concerned that his dad didnt eat.

I mentioned the accident I saw to him but not in the context that I thought it was his dad. He insisted on going to the scene so we drove over there. It turned out it was his father. A cop pulled me to the side and told me his dad didnt make it and it would be best to let the hospital tell him and his family the news.

I had to call his family and tell them to come to the hospital. No one except me knew he was dead and I will never forget the screams I heard when the had the whole family in a private room in the hospital and I was way down the hall in the waiting area.

Anyhow... its best that you talk to the family to let them know what happened... very odd how death can come out of nowhere:(

Christ, and I thought I've ad some bad dates. Thats a horrible story.

Good luck meeting with the folks. I wish you strength and courage.

I wish I could ask.. :(

She may have had hives or something else that seems minor. Maybe her mother will have shed some light on it.

I wish I'd pressed her for details when she said that, because if she'd told me she'd had flushing, itching or whatever, I'd have warned her off.

Very sad.

Oh man. That's fuckin sad.

:(

Look at it this way, you almost saved her, by insisting on the ambulance. With most other people, she would have had even less chance of making it.

Stay sober for the meet with the family, its the right thing to do.

My mother is allergic to shellfish, specifically the iodine in them. As a child she had minor reactions to them i.e. itching and some hives.

One night about 10 years ago when she was 40 we had clam chowder. A short time later she began to get hives all over her body and started having trouble breathing.

I was an EMT at the time so I decided to take her to the hospital. Fortunately it was only two blocks away. As we arrived her airway was completely blocked by the swelling. A single shot of epinephrine and the swelling subsided and she started moving back to normal. A few hours later she was fine.

Being a former EMT you have probably seen plenty of people die. No matter how many times it happens it's always difficult especially when it's someone you know if even just a little.

If you ever don't fell like shit when someone dies in front of you then you need to re-evaluate yourself.

Sorry to hear that dude...that is one fucked up situation.

I was walking to work one morning when i lived on UT campus and some kid jumped off a 6 story building and landed on a car top right beside me and my b/f as i was locking my bicycle up . We ran in and called an ambulance right away.. never did find out what happened to the kid..leaves ya feeling real creeped .

sorry to hear that, hope you are coping, and that your talk with her family "helped" you a bit. :(

You did all you could, and that's about all you can do. Sorry it didn't turn out better for her.

that's similar to what happened to my Mom. My parents went to some resort hotel in Columbia for a vacation.
She was sitting out at the pool, she looked up and there is a guy falling from a balcony 20 floors up. He hit pavement not far from her. For like a year she had nightmares from it.

Gutterboy's story is going to become an urban myth. I've told about 5 people, and I know when it gets retold it will be 'my friend met this girl on the Internet ......'

Sorry for your loss.

Btw, true story: The same exact thing happened to me when I worked at Epochsystems.com as their Exec. Sales Manager back in 97/98 , and it actually happened after lunch and in PayComs offices in Santa Monica. But there were two distinct differences.

1. I ate Mahi Mahi (with Joel Hall who had no reaction at all to the same fish)

2. I survived (thank goodness for epinephrine and adrenaline shots)

Very very sad to hear someone actually die from it. She was not as lucky as I was...


:(

damn, thats really sad :( :(

I am very sorry to hear that man. A year ago I had to witness a 4 year old die right in front of me. It absolutely amazes me how fast someone can lose their life. You never know when or where.

Just try not to take things forgranted is what I learned.
Good Luck

Dam horrible experience. RIP :(