TV producer with nut allergy is brain damaged after one bite of holiday meal
‘It is an absolute emergency’
A TV producer was left brain-damaged and in a wheelchair after just one bite of a meal triggered a devastating nut allergy.
Amy-May Shead, 29 – who worked on ITV’s This Morning – had an almost fatal anaphylactic reaction on holiday.
She was with friends in Budapest in 2014 when she took a mouthful of a chicken and rice dish, having told the manager and the chef that she had a severe nut allergy and being reassured that the meal would be free of nuts.
Realising instantly that she was having a severe allergic reaction, she used the EpiPen she always carried – a medical device that injects a measured dose of adrenaline to counter the reaction.
But two injections failed to have any effect and she went into cardiac arrest.
It took paramedics six minutes to revive her, leaving her brain deprived of oxygen. She was left in a coma and is severely brain damaged, needing 24-hour care.
Her parents, Roger and Sue Shead, from Chelmsford in Essex, are now campaigning for allergies to be taken more seriously and for nuts to be banned on flights.
This is because nuts in enclosed spaces such as aircraft could lead to someone having a severe reaction.
Yesterday, they appeared with their daughter on the TV show she once worked on. Presenters Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, who worked closely with Miss Shead on the programme, also vowed to support them.
Mr Holmes said: ‘We will be fighting for nuts to be banned on flights.’
Miss Langsford asked Miss Shead, who cannot talk but can understand speech, what she thought of the debate. Communicating by blinking, she agreed there should be a ban. Mrs Shead explained that whenever her daughter travelled she carried a card in the language of the countries she visited explaining her allergy. Following the catastrophic reaction, Miss Shead spent 19 days in a coma on life support.
Her parents were told that she could die within days and she was given just a 30 per cent chance of survival. After she stabilised, she was flown home and treated at specialist units in London for almost two years.
She was then moved to a facility in Essex, and her parents are about to move into an adapted home so they can look after her.
Since the incident, they have been forced to sell their former home to fund her treatment costs because Miss Shead’s condition was not covered by her insurance. The couple now rely on a foundation set up in her name, the Amy-May Trust.
They are backing a call for nuts to be banned on any flights after a little boy recently had a severe allergic reaction aboard a plane last month. Singapore Airlines is reviewing its policy on inflight nuts after three-yearold Marcus Daley suffered the anaphylactic reaction when fellow passengers began eating nuts. His parents administered medication to reverse the effects but the incident caused a debate over whether allergies are taken seriously.
Dr Zoe Williams, who joined the Shead family on the ITV couch yesterday said: ‘Lots of people have mild allergies.
‘But anaphylaxis or severe allergic reactions are completely different. Just a particle of nut dust in a plane can cause somebody to have a reaction. It is an absolute medical emergency.’
Go to https://amymaytrust.com/ to donate to Amy’s care.