Devastated parents are sharing an important message with the world after they recently lost their 11-year-old son to food allergies.
Referring to the tragedy as the worst thing that could ever happen to any parent, the couple sat down to share an important message to other parents, in an effort to raise awareness regarding the ordeal.
The Debbs family claim that it was an incident that they’ve learned a huge lesson from and now, they wish to spread awareness for other families. “We just don’t want others to go through the pain that we’d had the misfortune to encounter,” the Debbs family went on to add.
Both Robert and Merrill shared their story as a lifelong lesson for others, hoping that others don’t follow in their footsteps. And that’s when the duo began by describing what exactly led to their son Oakley’s death.
Young Oakley was an asthma patient who suffered from both tree nuts as well as peanut allergies. Moreover, both parents were super concerned regarding their son’s health and so was young Oakley too. He always made sure that he read food and drink labels carefully.
Everything seemed to be going alright until the family’s vacation trip to Maine. It was reportedly Thanksgiving Day and that’s when Oakley consumed a slice of cake as his main meal because he didn’t like what was on the menu.
Oakley’s mum Merrill recalled the tragic incident, describing the horror that took place, word by word. “He just thought it was a harmless piece of cake.” However, when he ate it, that’s when he realized the possibility that it had nuts inside.
Worried as ever, his mother started to panic as her son soon developed a large hive upon his lip. On that occasion, the mum didn’t waste a second and opted to administer Benadryl to help ease his symptoms. Thankfully, the mum was happy to see that Oakley was doing okay and had no trouble with his breathing too.
But within no time, he began having a slight soreness to his chest. Not paying too much heed, the family felt he was out of danger and decided to call it a night and let Oakley rest. But within an hour, Oakley entered his parent’s room and began vomiting.
On that note, his mum administered another dose of Benadryl, assuming her son threw up his previous dose. But it was soon evident how he was having trouble breathing too.
Paramedics rushed to the scene upon the parents’ 911 call, and that’s when it was discovered that he had suffered from a heart attack. Unfortunately, he died by the time he got to the hospital.
Now, his parents claim that those suffering from allergies need to be given an EpiPen to help combat the symptoms. If only they were made aware of this scenario in the past, they would have never attempted to treat their son with Benadryl.
For this reason, they’re alerting others to ask their physicians about EpiPen which makes epinephrine easily available, saving so many lives too.