A 16-year-old Jerusalem resident came close to death on Saturday after eating ice cream despite having a milk allergy.
The teenager had been spending the weekend in a town in the Shfela region, the Judean hills. While there, he ended up inadvertently eating dairy ice cream his family had bought, assuming it was non-dairy.
However, within just a few minutes, he began showing signs of a severe allergic reaction, having trouble breathing and breaking out in a rash. His entire respiratory tract was beginning to swell and the situation became life-threatening.
The epi-pen didn't stop the life-threatening allergic reaction and he was hospitalized
After an epi-pen injection didn't help, the boy was put under anesthesia by emergency responders who took him to Assuta Ashdod Hospital, where he was hooked up to a ventilator.
It took a day, but soon the patient showed enough signs of improvement that the doctors were able to take him off the ventilator.
"Milk allergies are the most common food allergies in Israel and the Western world and most of those who suffer from it are children and teenagers."
Eliyahu Magen
"Milk allergies are the most common food allergies in Israel and the Western world and most of those who suffer from it are children and teenagers," said allergy specialist Prof. Eliyahu Magen.
He stressed the need for epi-pens to be used at the first sign of symptoms.