“She took a few bites, realized something was wrong… She did her Epipen… but somewhere along the way things went downhill,” father Grover Pickering said
A 23-year-old Texas college student is dead after her family said she unknowingly ingested peanuts while out on a date at a restaurant.
The family of Alison Pickering told CBS News that they hope to raise awareness of food allergies after they say she died despite being careful and cognizant of her allergy — even when eating out at a restaurant she’d been to before.
Her parents told the outlet that she was on a first date a few days before her graduation from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, in May 2023, when she chose to eat at a restaurant she’d been to before — which was not identified in the article — and ordered a menu item she had previously ordered: a Mahi-Mahi.
“She would repeatedly go to the same restaurants and order the same dishes, you know. And that was a common thing,” Alison’s father, Grover Pickering, told the outlet.
However, her parents said that this time the dish was different from the previous times she ate there as the restaurant had changed the recipe to include peanut sauce. According to Allison’s obituary, this was not “disclosed” on the restaurant menu, additionally Grover told CBS News that the wait staff was also unaware of the change.
“She took a few bites, realized something was wrong,” said Grover. “She did her Epipen. The ambulance came. She actually walked to the ambulance talking to them, but somewhere along the way things went downhill.”
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Allison experienced “severe anaphylactic shock,” according to her obituary. Anaphylaxis is a “life-threatening allergic reaction that happens very quickly” and at its most severe stage, a person could “lose consciousness,” become “unable to breathe” and have “inadequate blood flow to vital organs,” according to the U.K.’s National Health Service and Cleveland Clinic.
That’s what happened to Allison, her parents said, which prompted them to advocate for Texas’ Sergio Lopez Food Allergy Awareness Act. The legislation would require food service establishments to train their staff on food allergen safety, and to be expanded to restaurant staff across the U.S.
“It’s tragic and it doesn’t need to happen to anyone else,” Grover told CBS News of his daughter’s death.
He noted that the family was also hoping to work with the Texas Restaurant Association to help “determine” what “guidelines could be put in place to help restaurants have better communication to their customers as far as ingredients.”
“I know we’re going to save lives by doing this,” his wife Joy Pickering said.
As for Allison, her family says she will be remembered as someone who “loved people” and enjoyed “working with children,” according to her obituary.
