Editor’s Note: Fatal anaphylaxis from food allergy is a terrible way to lose a loved one or friend. A person can be perfectly healthy in one moment, then eat the wrong food, become incapacitated and, without prompt and sufficient treatment, that person can die.
Simon Katz of Denver, Colorado, was one of the unfortunate few. He lost his life to anaphylaxis, the severe form of food-allergic reaction, at only 16 years of age. As Allergic Living reported at the time, the peanut-allergic teen died on September 21, 2015, from eating a s’more with a Reese’s peanut butter cup hidden inside.
Allergic Living contributor Nicole Smith, who also resides in Colorado and has a college-age son with multiple allergies, has a strong interest in helping teens and young adults manage food allergies. As an allergy parent, she was deeply affected by the loss of Simon Katz to anaphylaxis, and sought to find out what could be learned from his tragedy.
One thing that’s seldom discussed is the impact of fatal anaphylaxis on a young person’s friends, as well as the potential role friends play in reaction prevention. Nicole reached out to two of Simon’s friends, who share their stories below, not just of losing Simon that fateful September evening, but also what they wish they had known about food allergies, what they wish they could have done for their friend, the pain they have lived with – and what they want other kids to know to prevent losing another young person to this disease.
Caution: this article is powerful – we do not recommend it for children or young teens.
Simon Katz (2nd from left) with Scott Romano (far right) and other friends just before the bonfire. Madeline Scott (brown hair) is in the middle.
ON the night of their high school homecoming bonfire, Simon Katz went with his friends Madeline Scott and Scott Romano to eat at a local diner, the Sonic Drive-In, before the start of festivities. Although Simon had previously mentioned his peanut allergy to her, it had slipped Madeline’s mind.
“It didn’t register with me,” she told Allergic Living. “I offered him a peanut butter shake, and he said ‘no.’ I didn’t even think about it.” For Scott, this was the first time he had heard that Simon had an allergy to peanuts, even though they had been friends in the school theater program for a year.
At this point, “I started freaking out. We didn’t know what to do in the situation,” says Madeline. While Simon usually carried an EpiPen auto-injector in his backpack and had one in his car, he hadn’t driven and had neither device with him.
Simon said the reaction he was experiencing was “the aftermath” of throwing up the peanut-containing s’more. He told his friends to just give him a minute to calm down and not to worry.
A few minutes later at the bonfire, Scott finally convinced Simon to get in his car to take him home, since Scott was taking another friend to a babysitting job.
Scott and his friend left Simon at his father’s house, where Simon’s father gave him the auto-injector shot and drove him to an urgent care facility. Simon died a short while later.
A year and a half after her friend’s death, Madeline says she is in a better place, or at least mostly. “I will occasionally wake up in the middle of the night and feel this hatred toward myself.” She says the choir teacher also carried a lot of guilt, as he came up with the idea to put Reese’s cups in some of the s’mores.
An extensive investigation into the incident was completed by Jefferson County School District. It reached to two key conclusions: Students need to be better educated to reach out to adults in attendance “when you see something abnormal,” said Diana Wilson, the district’s chief communications officer, and all after school activities will now have a nurse’s aide or emergency medical technician (EMT) present.
In honor of Simon, Allergic Living asks parents and teenagers to ensure that their friends are fully aware of their food allergies. Teach them: what an allergic reaction looks like, how to administer an epinephrine auto-injector and the importance of using it promptly and then calling 911. Be sure to always keep your epinephrine auto-injector within an arm’s length away, and remember to never eat without it nearby.
Tragedies like Simon’s are a great loss and exact a huge toll on everyone involved. Let’s learn from this young man’s passing, by working together – as friends, families, schools and advocates – to prevent a similar situation.