Off The Record
‘She died within 1 & 1/2 hours of eating the cookie.’: Mom urges everyone to read this
“Our hearts are broken, and we are still in shock. Our whole lives we dedicated to keeping our child safe from one ingredient, peanuts.
It was Monday when they lost 15-year-old daughter Alexi Ryann Stafford. While she was at a friends house she made a fatal choice.
There was an open package of Chips Ahoy cookies. The top flap of the package was pulled back so she confused the package for the things they taught her it’s ‘safe’ to consume.
She ate one cookie thinking she could satisfy her sugar cravings, only to find out too late that in the package there was an added ingredient: Reese peanut butter cups/chips.
She started feeling weird tingling sensation in her mount and went straight home. For those of you who haven’t witnessed, peanut allergy can go south in a matter of seconds.
Personally I know because of my nephew. If I touch a single peanut hours ago, and then touch his face or kiss him on the cheek, he gets a read rash on the spot and the bags under his eyes swell like I hit him with a punch. That’s, of course, if someone touch him who ate peanuts before. If he eats them firsthand, god knows what can happen.
Once Alexi situation started deteriorating with lightning speed, she went into Anaphylactic shock, stopped breathing and went unconscious. They administered 2 epi pens but to no avail. She died within 1 and a half hours of eating the cookie.
Her mother explains: “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.
I want to share our story with everyone because we want to spread awareness. The company has different colored packaging to indicate chunky, chewy, or regular but NO screaming warnings about such a fatal ingredient to many people. Especially children.“
It’s important for us to spread this message so we make sure it never EVER happens again.
Please share to SPREAD awareness!
