‘We have to test food on our allergic toddler in A&E car park’

The parents of a severely allergic toddler have been forced to test potentially life-threatening new foods on her in a hospital car park, because there is not enough specialist allergy care in the Welsh NHS.

Nick Patterson and his wife Gemma, both 41, have to test changes to the diet of Seren, two, within running distance of an A&E department in case she goes into anaphylactic shock.

Seren suffered from severe eczema when she was three months old, and her parents suspected it may have been caused by allergies; however, medical staff told them they could not run tests on her until she suffered a confirmed allergic reaction. Instead, they told the parents they should just “be brave” and feed her new foods.

“It turns out we know [she is severely allergic] because one of the first times we weaned her she ended up in an ambulance to hospital,” Nick Patterson, a physics teacher from the Vale of Glamorgan, said. “Ultimately you have to be in the back of an ambulance with the blue lights on to be taken seriously.”

Seren was left gasping for air as her throat closed and her lips swelled after her first taste of cheese. She was taken to the GP surgery by her parents and received two EpiPen shots, before receiving another two in the ambulance taking her to hospital. She has been admitted to hospital with several more anaphylactic reactions since then.

The Pattersons said they have been unable to undertake an “oral food challenge” in the 18 months since the first time Seren went to hospital. This is a “gold standard” test, in which doctors gradually feed someone potential allergens to identify whether they can be tolerated or not. The service was not available in their local hospital run by Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board, but they are on the waiting list for the neighbouring Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.

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Source: The Times, 2 January 2025