Tiburon 8th-grader wins congressional app contest
As a child with allergies to tree nuts, peanuts and sesame, Jayden Patel of Tiburon grew up being vigilant about everything he ate.
When ordering at a restaurant, he and his parents would inform chefs and waiters in detail about ingredients he could not have in his food.
As a backup, Jayden also carried an EpiPen, which delivers an injection of epinephrine to calm or reverse life-threatening symptoms of an allergic reaction. Those might include asthma-like breathing problems,
lowered blood pressure or digestive upset.
Despite his best efforts, Jayden endured terrifying allergic reactions after eating a pancake breakfast at a hotel in Hawaii and dining at an Indian restaurant in San Francisco.
“It seqnt him straight to the ER,” said his mother, Christine Patel. “Even after putting an EpiPen in him.”
Last year, Jayden, now an eighth-grader at Del Mar Middle School in Tiburon, developed a way to help himself and other allergy sufferers better communicate their food triggers with waiters who might not speak English.
Using Allergy Card, an app that Jayden developed on his iPhone, an allergy sufferer can display to restaurant staffers a list of prohibited foods — translated into 16 different languages.
Rep. Jared Huffman, who represents California's 2nd Congressional District, chose Allergy Card as the winner of his annual Congressional App Challenge. The district runs from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border.
“We are lucky to have a district full of bright young minds, and it's always inspiring to see the forward-looking apps they