- Christina Desforges
Christina Desforges (circa 1990-November 2005, aged 15 years), resident of
Saguenay, Quebec ,Canada , died in November 2005 of what was initially reported to be extreme anaphylactic shock due topeanut allergy . Initial reports claimed that she died after kissing her boyfriend, who had eaten toast with peanut butter nine hours earlier without knowing about her allergy. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4778740.stm BBC NEWS | Americas | Peanut butter 'did not kill girl' ] ] Because of the initial reports, theCanadian Association of Food Allergies Fact|date=May 2008 planned to use her death to promote food allergy awareness. However, when further information came to light, the campaign was dropped.According to the coroner's statement in March 2006, Ms. Desforges did not die of anaphylactic shock caused by a kiss from her boyfriend after he ate a peanut butter snack. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/03/03/peanut-kiss060303.html 'Peanut kiss' not cause of teen's death: coroner ] ] The coroner, Michel Miron, announced in May 2006 that the cause of death was an asthma-linked respiratory failure after she attended a party where tobacco and marijuana were being smoked.
Cerebral anoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain) is the official cause of death.The coroner said the girl "had spent hours at a party with smokers when her breathing problems began." [ [http://www.news-medical.net/?id=17942 Peanut - kiss not the culprit in Canadian teens death ] ] Any kind of
smoke can trigger an asthma attack in a susceptible person. It was also found that Desforges had strong enough traces of the active ingredient ofmarijuana ,THC , in her blood to assume that she had been smoking it herself. [ [http://www.pca.com.au/articles.php?rc=681] ] [ [http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/05/11/asthma-death.html Quebec teen died of asthma, not nutty kiss ] ] [ [http://www.calgaryallergy.ca/News.htm#teenpeanutkiss Calgary Allergy Network - In the News ] ]References
External links
Early reports: These news stories contain "breaking news" speculation and were later shown to be inaccurate.
* [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/29/earlyshow/contributors/emilysenay/main1081250.shtml Avoiding A Kiss Of Death] (CBS News)
* [http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/4553.html Kiss steals the life of a girl with an allergy] (EarthTimes)
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/29/wkiss29.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/11/29/ixportal.html Kiss of death for nut allergy girl] (The Telegraph)Later reports: Later reports contain detailed information from the coroner's report.
* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/05/12/international/i090214D76.DTL Coroner: Peanut Kiss Didn't Cause Death] (AP)
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