MEDISCOPE | ISSUE 2 | 02 DECEMBER 2020

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passengers they will not . Having an allergic
reaction on a plane can increase the
severity of a reaction. The oxygen pressure
in the plane when cruising is 25-30% lower
than when on ground which causes oxygen
blood saturation to decrease to 92-95%.
This can increase the chance of anaphylaxis
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occurring. As well, with flights ranging
from 1 to 20 hours, having an allergic
reaction mid-air and not being able to be
rushed to hospital can be fatal. Many
planes get diverted when a passenger goes
into anaphylactic shock but having to wait
till landing with little medical equipment
can be extremely terrifying for the allergic
passenger. In cases where allergy sufferers
have been reassured by their flight
attendants that they will not serve nuts but
still continue to, the allergic passenger may
not have taken enough medication with
them in case of an emergency, because
they were told no nuts would be served.
Not having the necessary treatment
available can make a reaction more serious
and can make the allergic passenger more
anxious.
An example of a terrifying flight experience
was Tricia Powell, who has multiple severe
allergies, when she came back from a
holiday in Disney World. She had previously
been told that no nuts would be served on
her flight but was horrified when a flight
attendant started offering passengers
mixed nuts. Tricia went into anaphylactic
shock and her airways started to close, she
was given oxygen and the plane was
diverted. Because of her anaphylactic
reaction and another medical condition
Tricia had she underwent major surgery.
Her 5 year old daughter was traumatised by
watching her mums allergic reaction and
was left with PTSD and severe separation
anxiety and Tricia herself was left with
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PTSD as well.
anaphylactic shock after eating a sesame
baguette from Pret A Manger that failed to
list all the ingredients. She collapsed during
a flight from London to Nice. Her father
administered two EpiPens during the threehour
flight, but her condition did not
improve. She was taken to hospital in
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France but later died. Although this case
didn’t involve peanuts on a plane, the
conditions of the plane could have
contributed to her reaction.
There are multiple examples of flight
attendants not taking allergies seriously,
one involving singer Dua Lipa and her sister
who is severely allergic to nuts. Dua told a
flight attendant about her sister’s allergy
and the attendant shockingly replied saying
the airline is not nut free so her sister may
have to use her EpiPen and that nuts would
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still be served.
There are many other examples of stories
like this and still there is a stigma against
allergies and how life threatening they can
be. Surely it is not that hard for people to
refrain from eating nuts for a flight to save
someone’s life, there are plenty of other
snacks available, so why are nuts still
served on planes when they cause so many
people fear and life threatening reactions?
If easyJet can stop serving nuts on all
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flights then why can’t all airlines?
ETHICS - ALLERGIES
Another more well known case is Natasha
Ednan-Laperouse who died from an
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