Tag Archives: chinese food

Florida woman mistakes 37-week pregnancy for bad Chinese food

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Jake Newby of USA Today reports Crystal Gail Amerson, 29, of Pensacola Florida, said she woke up around 4 a.m. Sunday with stomach pains that had her running back and forth between the bathroom and bedroom for more than an hour. 

“I had Chinese food the night before and I kind of figured maybe I had food poisoning or something like that,” Amerson said. 

But it turned out there was nothing wrong with the General Tso’s chicken Amerson ate the previous night. Unbeknownst to her, she was actually 37 weeks pregnant and was on the verge of giving birth to her second son. 

Amerson called off work at 5 a.m., and an hour later, as the pain worsened, she woke her fiancé up because they needed to call an ambulance. 

“The stomach pains were just excruciating and I could hardly move,” Amerson said. “I think it was about 6:30 (a.m.) when (the ambulance) got there. … It escalated so quickly that I was having contractions and we figured out kind of what was going on because at first we really didn’t know what was going on.” 

So how was it possible that Amerson didn’t realize she was pregnant?

Amerson had already been through one pregnancy but said she was never the type to feel a lot of the symptoms typically aligned with pregnancy, such as morning sickness. She also said she didn’t notice much weight gain. 

“I gained a little bit of weight, but I think with my first baby I didn’t notice either,” Amerson said. “I never gained that pregnancy shape, really. And then I wear scrubs to work because I work at a retirement home for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. So I guess the way they fit me as well, it was hard to notice anything or tell anything.”

Tragic: Seventh-grader dies of food allergy at Chicago school

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Chicago Public Schools sent grief counselors to Edison Regional Gifted Center on Monday after the death of a seventh-grader who had an allergic reaction to food she ate at school.

The Chicago Tribune reports Katelyn Carlson, 13, of the Sauganash neighborhood, was rushed from the Albany Park school at 4929 N. Sawyer Ave. to Swedish Covenant Hospital on Friday afternoon and transferred to Children’s Memorial Hospital, where she died of anaphylaxis, a severe reaction to a food allergy, according to Fire Department officials and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

CPS officials said they were conducting an investigation and could not provide details. Two parents of other students said they had been told by school officials that Katelyn had a severe allergic reaction to peanut oil from Chinese food ordered from a restaurant for a class party.

Matthew Akinrinade, whose daughter was a classmate and close friend of Katelyn’s since kindergarten, said his daughter also has a peanut allergy and assured him earlier last week that a teacher had called the restaurant several times to make sure peanuts would not be used in the food. Akinrinade said his daughter did not have a reaction to the food Friday, but she saw that Katelyn was having trouble breathing.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, food allergies affect approximately 1 in 25 school-aged children, and 16 percent to 18 percent of children with these allergies have had a reaction in school.