My daughter nearly died from a chip shop sausage | Latest news

The latest episode of our podcast “Don’t Say the Q Word”, features a woman who has worked at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) since she trained here as a student nurse from the age of 18 in 1992.

Lisa Clarke is now a Lead Clinical Nurse specialist in Allergy in Nottingham Children’s Hospital and was inspired to care for allergy patients in adults initially, when she saw the power of NUH care in her own personal experiences. When the opportunity to work in paediatrics came along, she knew it was a role made for her.

Lisa’s son and daughter received care for their allergies at Queens Medical Centre (QMC). Her son, Jevan, had a pea allergy which was very unusual and was initially treated in adults and then when he moved to paediatrics a management plan was put in place. Little did Lisa know that her son’s allergy was going to seem easy to manage once her daughter, Aeron, arrived in 2001.

At the age of just 9 months her allergic reactions started. Aeron was still breast feeding at the time but was starting to try solids and had a reaction to cows’ milk and yoghurt. Like her brother, she was initially treated in adults, which was the process at the time, but her reactions became so bad that she was moved into paediatrics.

At the age of two, Aeron had severe anaphylaxis from eating a chip shop sausage and almost died. The reaction was to the whey powder in the batter mix.

Lisa recalled: “It was probably the most traumatic experience of my life.

“We were supposed to be going out carol singing with the school, so we got a chip shop tea as a treat beforehand. Aeron was getting an appetite by this stage, and she ate this huge, battered sausage.

“She wandered into the kitchen after tea and had a nettle rash – urticaria - all up her neck and within minutes she was covered all over in really intense hives, her lips were swelling and she was wheezing.

“We lived 10 minutes from QMC, so we jumped in the car and drove straight to A&E. I thought she looked a bluey colour and thankfully the staff noticed and took her straight through to a cubicle.

She was floppy on my knee and her dad said to me ‘what’s wrong with her feet?’ and I looked and they were purple, which meant she was shutting down.”

As you will discover from listening/watching this podcast episode, Lisa is very clear that this was an extreme anaphylaxis. It’s rare that anaphylaxis is life threatening and children, particularly, recover quite quickly. Once they administered the adrenalin 2-year-old Aeron came round quickly and was running around the ward.

This all happened over 20 years ago, and Lisa’s daughter is now 24 years old but even all these years on Lisa said: “It still makes me choke up now.

“There was a moment when I really thought we were going to go home without her, all because we had a chip shop tea.”

In this podcast episode Lisa is joined by her colleague - and the lady who cared for both of Lisa’s children - Children's respiratory and community nurse, Debra Forster. It is great to see and hear the mutual respect and admiration they both have and above all the passion they still have for the job they do and the difference they make to their patients and families.

In this conversation you will hear Lisa recount the trauma of watching her daughter in serious anaphylaxis and the emotion that holds still 20 years on; we discuss why allergy is much more prevalent now and the idea that maybe we are all too clean; and we discover how even kissing could be dicey!

Watch/Listen to the latest Episode here: https://www.nuh.nhs.uk/dont-say-the-q-word

Don't Say The Q Word is available on all your favourite podcast apps.