In the wonderful worldwide passion that is the consumption of food (I dare you to find someone who doesn't like eating), there's nothing sadder than not having the means to eat anything at all, or having certain foods stricken off the menu through no fault of your own.
While modern science is doing its level best to ensure food security across the globe; sometimes, for seemingly no reason, your body reacts to certain foods in bizarre - and as we'll see here, deadly - ways.
It's every parent's worst nightmare to be forced to bury their own child, and it's a situation that's sadly befallen Kellie Travers-Stafford, mom to 15-year-old Alexi Ryann Stafford, who tragically died after accidentally eating a cookie that contained peanut - which she was deadly allergic to.
"Our whole lives we dedicated to keeping our child safe from one ingredient, peanuts," said Travers-Stafford in a now-viral Facebook post dedicated to her daughter. On June 25, Alexi had been over at a friend's house, just like any other teenager, when she spotted a open packet of cookies.
With the top flap of the cookies eerily similar to what she was allowed to eat at home, Alexi took a bite of the cookie, but this turned out to be a fatal error. According to her mom, these cookies had an extra ingredient: peanut butter.
"She started feeling tingling in her mouth and came straight home. Her condition rapidly deteriorated. She went into Anaphylactic shock, stopped breathing and went unconscious. We administered 2 epi pens while she was conscious and waited on paramedics for what felt like an eternity. "
But sadly, all of those efforts were in vain. Alexi tragically lost her life - within an hour and a half of ingesting the cookie, and rather than blame herself for her daughter's tragic misstep, Kellie Travers-Stafford says that the company involved could have done more to highlight the difference between the various types of cookie.
"As a mother who diligently taught her the ropes of what was okay to ingest and what was not, I feel lost and angry because she knew her limits and was aware of familiar packaging, she knew what 'safe' was. A small added indication on the pulled back flap on a familiar red package wasn’t enough to call out to her that there was 'peanut product' in the cookies before it was too late."
Since its posting back on July 12, Kellie Travers-Stafford's post has been shared over 75,000 times - with many commenters throwing their support behind this grieving mother, her child taken from her in such agonising fashion.
"Yes, it would be helpful if a peanut warning was made in a specific colored package. So very sad," said one such commenter, while another said: "This is my greatest fear being a Mom of a child with peanut allergy! My heart goes out to her family." But at this point, commiserations are of little use to this heartbroken mother.
"It’s important to us to spread awareness so that this horrible mistake doesn’t happen again," she said.
