JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Gray News) – A father in Florida is suing a school district after his teenage daughter fell into a coma and died after eating a popular dessert at her high school.
According to the lawsuit, 17-year-old Kayleen Brown, an Atlantic Coast High School senior, attended a school meeting on campus in July 2023 that included food.
One of the food items provided was baklava.
Brown suffered from a severe allergy to food products that contained allergens, including nuts. Brown. The filing claims that the allergy was known to DCPS employees.
Because she was unfamiliar with the dish, Brown asked staff members if the baklava was nut-free, and was told that it was, the lawsuit said.
After hearing that it did not contain nuts, Brown ate the dessert and soon discovered that the food she had consumed contained pistachio nuts
The 17-year-old then began to experience symptoms related to her food allergy and told staff members that she had eaten nuts and was starting to feel symptoms.
She then left the school to go to a pharmacy to get Benadryl to treat those symptoms.
While at the pharmacy, she experienced anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest, according to the lawsuit.
She was taken to a hospital where she fell into a coma and died days later.
The wrongful death lawsuit claims that DCPS employees and/or agents “negligently” failed to warn the food provided at a school meeting contained allergens, failed to educate staff on food allergen procedures, and failed to follow its own food allergy management and prevention plan.
Kayleen’s father told WJAX that he said he hopes the loss of his daughter will save others from a tragedy like this.
The lawsuit seeks at least $50,000 in damages and demands a jury trial against DCPS.
A GoFundMe page was created to help her family.
Her grandmother, who created the donation page, said that she had just attended prom right before her sudden death.
‘Kayleen had the ambition of becoming an anesthesiologist had the grades to accomplish this and anything she could put her mind to,’ she wrote.
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