MONTREAL, Quebec (AP)—A teenager with a peanut allergy did not die from kissing her boyfriend following his peanut-butter snack, but from a lack of oxygen to her brain, a Quebec coroner said Monday

Read more…... http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/03/06/peanut.kiss.ap/index.html

I knew something was up with that…...

Agreed.  It never sounded very believable in the first place.

Why didn’t it sound believable? I once had a girlfriend with a nut allergy, I ate a cornetto (Ice cream cone with nuts on top) then kissed her and her lips swelled up like two sausages, and she was quite ill. (Not severely though, luckily) Needless to say it put a dampner on the afternoon!

X - 06 March 2006 07:46 PM

MONTREAL, Quebec (AP)—A teenager with a peanut allergy did not die from kissing her boyfriend following his peanut-butter snack, but from a lack of oxygen to her brain, a Quebec coroner said Monday

Read more…... http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/03/06/peanut.kiss.ap/index.html

Ok, help me out here.

I get a severe allergic reaction when I’m around cats and my throat closes up and I can’t breathe.  Not breathing is an allergic reaction.  Wouldn’t not breathing lead to, oh… say…  lack of oxygen to the brain?  Lack of oxygen to the brain could lead to…. death if my high school science isn’t too fuzzy.

So, I guess I’m not following the logic here, unless the official report was meant to legally protect the boyfriend from some sort of manslaughter charge or civil court action.

Well, apparantly it’s possible she suffered an asthmatic attack, but the hospital isn’t verifying that.  They also state that they did not treat her for an allergic reaction since nobody at the hospital knew she even had any allergies. 

What it boils down to is A) She died from lack of oxygen to the brain, and B) it wasn’t caused by her allergy.  They won’t say what it was caused by, though.

Hi - my first message!

ALL deaths are caused by lack of oxygen to the brain. Back in my days as a news reporter, I was friends with the local coroner (medical examiner) and she explained this to me a few times - she was half joking, but she is technically correct. The simple legal definition of death is when the brain stops functioning. It stops functioning when it has no oxygen. The real question is what caused the lack of oxygen to the brain. Sounds to me like this coronor may be playing word games.

Mort - 07 March 2006 09:46 AM

Why didn’t it sound believable?

Mostly, the several hours in between the sandwich and the kiss. Never did sound plausible.