Nut allergy: 4 y/o nearly dies after a man ignores warnings and opens nuts on a plane.

By SHAUNA ANDERSON

Four-year old Fae Platten never wants to fly again.

She is so terrified now she has begged her Mum and Dad not to ever take her on holiday.

The young girl, who is severely allergic to nuts, lost consciousness on a plane when a passenger four rows away opened a packet of nuts.

Fae, from the UK, was travelling with her parents and her big sister from Tenerife to London on their way home from a family holiday.

Her parents had informed the airline of her medical condition and three separate announcements were made warning that there were passengers onboard with nut allergies.

The announcement also said they would be selling no nuts on the flight and that no nuts purchased in the airport should be consumed, Fae’s mother Katy Platten told the Daily Star.

But  a man travelling with teenage children ignored the warnings and opened a packet of nuts anyway, according to The London Evening Standard.

Her mum, Katy Platten, wrote on Facebook – in a post that has been shared over 2000 times :

20 minutes into the flight Fae said: ‘Mummy, my face hurts’.

She started scratching her checks so I took her to the front and said I think somebody has opened nuts.

The air cabin crew were really good and gave her a flannel and some ice.

But she was becoming quite poorly. As we sat down, Fae’s breathing deteriorated, her tongue was swollen and her lips were blistered.

For a few moments Fae stopped breathing. Her airway was compromised and she went unconscious.

The airline put out a call for anyone with medical training on board to assist. An ambulance worker came forward and administered Fae’s EpiPen – the first time she has needed it.

The air conditioning on the plane had meant there was no way she could get away from the nut particles circulating in the air.

The injection revived her, but she was left with badly blistered lips and a swollen tongue.

According to Katy, the man four rows away from them deliberately ignored the warning.

The Express reports the man was involved in an argument with a passenger who sat next to him over the nuts.

Katy told The Express: “The police told us that the man sitting in front of him told him not to open the nuts, but he just said he’d open them if he wanted to.”

“He was a dad with two teenage children so he should have known better.”

She wrote on Facebook. “I am so angry but my main priority was to make sure Fae was okay.”

“It was very scary seeing what was happening to her – there was no way we could take her out of the situation because we were stuck on the flight.”

“Fae has said she never wants to go on an airplane again after what happened but we’ve tried to explain to her that she will miss out on some wonderful holidays if we don’t fly.”

The airline Ryanair has banned the passenger who opened the nuts for flying with the airline for two years.

The incident comes days after a United Airlines flight was forced to turn back two hours into a flight to the US from Dublin after a nine-year-old girl went into anaphylactic shock on board due to nuts.

Many Australian airlines such as Qantas do not serve peanuts on board – but they do serve cashews, almonds and other nuts. Others who fly into Australia like Emirates, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airways (just a few amongst many) still serve the controversial bags of peanuts.

Katy has written her Facebook warning to warn future air passengers that people with nut allergies can suffer even if they do not eat them.

“It was a nightmare and I was so scared for Fae, I was shaking,” she said.

For more information on nut allergies, visit this page. 

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