NEW YORK – A 17-year-old girl from Long Island suffered anaphylactic shock at her high school prom last week, and her father is criticizing the school for letting potentially critical time pass when officials l allegedly accused of drug use, according to the family.
Adrianna Varghese, who suffers from severe tree nut and peanut allergies, was in Half Hollows Hills West High School for the Friday night dance when she ate a cookie, she and her dad say. Her throat began to close up, and Varghese and her father say the girl asked if the treats contained nuts. She claims that a director answered in the affirmative.
The school knows that Varghese is allergic to these nuts, his family says. He’s been in the same neighborhood since fifth grade. In sixth grade, he accidentally had a granola bar and the school had to give him an EpiPen.
She went to the nurse’s office when her symptoms worsened on Friday and told them she needed help for an allergic reaction, her family says. They say school staff insisted on asking him about medication and eventually gave him Benadryl.
The young woman threw it up and called her father for help. She lives down the street from the school and arrived with her EpiPen within minutes, she said. The nurse took the pen from her hand and handed it to the girl, who used it.
It ended up being fine. But her father, Daniel, says the nurse should have recognized her symptoms as indicators of anaphylactic shock. He also claims that he was the one who called the ambulance.
A school district spokesperson said in a statement that the health and well-being of its students is always the top priority, which is why a nurse was on hand for large-scale events like prom Friday.
“When our nurse was informed that this student was ill, she took immediate action,” the statement read. “The nurse began to assess the student’s vital signs, asked questions to assess care needed, began treatment for an allergic reaction, including administration of Benadryl and an Epi-Pen not specific to the patient, and contacted the student’s parents and first responders.