One little boy died after consuming cake. His sudden death has since served as a reminder to parents everywhere that food allergies are no laughing matter. While some allergies are obvious and cause a reaction immediately, others take time to develop and get worse with every exposure. Mom Merrill Debbs is now coming forward to share her tragic story about her son Oakley who died after eating cake because she wants to save other parents from the horror of watching a food allergy kill their child.
Minutes later, he told his mom, “I’m getting sick again.”
“He started throwing up, and from there it was a tornado of issues,” Debbs said. “We called 911. By the time the ambulance got there — about 10 minutes later— he was blue.”
Within 90 minutes of eating the walnut, Oakley was dead. His airwaves sealed shut, and his heart stopped beating.
Because she wants to make sense of her boy’s senseless death, Debbs launched the Red Sneaker Foundation. It helps educate parents about the seriousness of food allergies.
“I don’t think my beautiful, amazing, talented, adorable son should have passed away,” Debbs said. She is also pushing to ban all nuts from classrooms.
Dr. Ruchi Gupta, an associate professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and director of the Food Allergies Outcomes Program at Northwestern spoke to TODAY.
“We do not know enough about delayed reactions like these that seem to get better but then progress rapidly to death,” Gupta said. “That is why it is so critical to know how to identify a reaction and when and how to use epinephrine."