A 17-year-old Long Island girl went into anaphylactic shock at her junior prom last week, and her father is blasting the school for allowing potentially critical time to elapse as officials allegedly accused her of using drugs, the family says.
Arianna Varghese, who has severe tree nut and peanut allergies, was at Half Hollows Hills High School West for the dance Friday night when she had a cookie, she and her dad say. Her throat began to close up, and Varghese and her dad say the girl asked if the treats had nuts in them. She claims one administrator answered affirmatively.
The school knows Varghese is allergic to those nuts, her family says. She's been in the same district since fifth grade. In sixth grade, she accidentally had a granola bar and the school needed to administer an EpiPen.
She went to the nurse's office as her symptoms worsened Friday and told them she needed help for an allergic reaction, her family says. They say school staff persisted in asking her about drugs, then eventually gave her Benadryl.
The girl vomited it out -- and called her father for help. He lives down the street from the school and arrived with her EpiPen within minutes, she says. The nurse took the pen from the dad’s hand and administered it herself.
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She ended up being OK. But her father, Daniel, says the nurse should've recognized her symptoms as indicators of anaphylactic shock. He also claims he was the one who called the ambulance. He asked why an ambulance wasn't called, and that's when they called 911. The school disputes this, however, and said that 911 was called just before the father arrived.
A school district spokesperson said in a statement that the health and well-being of its students are always top priority, which is why a nurse was on site for large-scale events like Friday's prom.
"When our nurse was notified that this student was ill, she acted immediately," the statement said. "The nurse began evaluating the student’s vitals, asked questions to assess what care was needed, began treatment for an allergic reaction including the administration of Benadryl and a non-patient-specific Epi-Pen, and contacted the student’s parents and first responders."
"From the time the nurse was called and began treating the child to the time first responders arrived, approximately 15 minutes had passed," the district added. "We are thankful that our student has recovered and returned to school."
