Wednesday. 11:45 p.m.: Chandler Swink was pronounced dead at 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, reports The Oakland Post, the student newspaper for Oakland University.
__________________________________
Not everyone understands the severity of some food allergies. Unfortunately, the Swink family does.
Oakland University sophomore Chandler Swink, 19, who has a severe nut allergy, has been in a coma since Nov. 18 at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac after suffering from a severe allergic reaction, Monica Drake of The Oakland Press reports.
The paper reports that Swink was diagnosed with a level six nut allergy when he was 2 years old. That's the most severe form of the allergy, and now doctors give him a 2-percent chance of surviving.
The Oakland Press writes:
His mom, Nancy, said Chandler was at a friend’s apartment, and someone baked peanut butter cookies. Nancy said he either ate food that came in contact with the cookies or someone who was contaminated by peanut butter residue touched him. When he started having a reaction, Chandler went out to his car to inject himself with an EpiPen and drove himself to the hospital. He was found unconscious in the parking lot of St. Joseph Mercy Oakland around 1 a.m. Tuesday.
Interestingly, this comes as a Clawson School Board member Linda Grossman resigned this week after making a public crack about students with food allergies, saying: "We should just shoot them."
-- Allan Lengel