Kiss lands girl allergic to nuts in hospital

LONDON - A kiss landed a schoolgirl allergic to nuts in hospital because her boyfriend forgot to tell her he had eaten hazelnuts that morning.

Laura Kukic, 14, a resident of Barton-le-Clay in Bedfordshire, is allergic to nuts and went into shock after a small nut fragment got into her system. Her face began to swell and her breathing became difficult, Daily Mail reported.

She was given first aid at her school and the staff immediately called an ambulance.

Though Laura has fully recovered, she has warned other youngsters with the same condition that a kiss can be dangerous.

“Who’d have guessed that a peck on the lips could be so dangerous,” she said.

The incident happened in June after tenth standard student arrived on the school bus with at the Harlington Upper school in Bedfordshire. Her 16-year-old boyfriend was waiting for her on the school stairs.

“A few kids were about getting ready for the day and as usual we gave each other a kiss. It was just a friendly hello kiss. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing passionate just a brief touch of the lips,” she said.

Laura was first diagnosed with a severe nut allergy when she was three years old and has to carry a ‘Epipen’ with her wherever she goes. This is used to deliver a shot of adrenaline into the bloodstream, which reverses the allergic reaction by narrowing the blood vessels and opening the airways.

Her allergy means that any contact with nuts can bring on a severe reaction. Her face swells up, her throat tightens and it’s hard for her to breathe as she goes into what is called anaphylactic shock.

“I hadn’t noticed anything, but my boyfriend could see that my face was starting to swell, so that my head looked visibly bigger. Then he said ‘Oh, I did have cereal with hazelnuts in, but that was about and hour ago, and I’ve brushed my teeth and had a drink, surely that will be alright? I made sure I brushed my teeth a few times’,” she said.

Laura had also taken a sip from his can of coke, which could have been contaminated with slight traces of nuts.

Her boyfriend immediately took her to the school office. A few minutes later, she started to feel the effect. Her throat tightened and she was having trouble breathing. She was injected with her epipen by a school first-aider, to bring the allergy down.

The Epipen began to work and she started recovering. Her parents arrived and took her to hospital.

“The paramedics who had come to the school had given us a form which said ‘Boyfriend Kissed.’ It felt like I was in a silly over-dramatic soap,” said Laura.