Whiff Of Shrimp May Have Killed Diner -- Allergies To Food Can Be Deadly

PHILADELPHIA - Life could not have been more wonderful for Kathy Tague DiGirolamo.

She had found a perfect match in her husband of three years, Rob. She was on her way to achieving a long-held dream of becoming a teacher of poor children. She and Rob were enjoying a new home in Hatfield, Pa. And they had gone to the British West Indies for a second honeymoon.

It was there, at age 29, that DiGirolamo died suddenly Nov. 13, under circumstances that have frightening implications for the millions of adults and children who suffer from allergies to food.

DiGirolamo, who had long suffered from bronchial asthma as well as an allergy to shellfish, became ill on Grand Cayman Island shortly after a waiter walked by with a platter of shrimp.

She had trouble breathing at first and attempted to use her asthma inhalator, which did no good. Her breathing worsened and - despite rescue efforts by three doctors dining in the restaurant, joined by local paramedics - DiGirolamo's pulse rate plunged, and her heart stopped. She was declared dead at the Grand Cayman hospital.

A pathologist's report is not final, said a spokesman for the Grand Cayman Police Department. But DiGirolamo's grieving relatives believe that it was the mere "smell" of the shrimp that caused her death.

Allergy experts concur. Although fatalities from airborne allergens are rare, they say - perhaps occurring no more than once or twice a year in the United States - they can happen and often without warning.

In a Detroit suburb in February, an 8-year-old girl with an allergy to garbanzo beans died after inhaling fumes from a pressure cooker being used to prepare the legumes.

Such deaths, the result of a systemwide breakdown called anaphylactic shock, are "certainly rare but certainly possible," said John Yunginger, an allergist with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Victims probably have two factors working against them, he said: an "exquisite" allergy to a food such as peanuts or shellfish, coupled with an existing asthma condition, which restricts airways and makes them more vulnerable.

Although he knew of no fatalities from inhaled food allergens, Robert Wood, director of the pediatric allergy clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, said he has treated patients who have become ill after smelling cooking food they are allergic to, including a cook "who can't be in the kitchen when shrimp is cooked. . . . He gets asthmatic-type symptoms."

Experts say deaths such as DiGirolamo's may serve as a warning - both to those who have food allergies and to those who are not allergic and don't appreciate the risks.

Anne Muoz-Furlough, founder of the nonprofit educational organization Food Allergy Network, estimated about 8 million Americans suffer from food allergies.

Free information about food allergies is available by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the Food Allergy Network, 4744 Holly Ave., Fairfax, VA 22030.