A Wisconsin college student with a severe peanut allergy died days after consuming a gluten-free brownie that sent her into anaphylactic shock — but her tragic death is now providing life to others in need.
Hannah Glass, 19, broke out in hives and became violently ill on Nov. 5 after consuming the chocolatey treat, which contained roasted peanut flour, a substitute for wheat flour, according to her devastated family, who opted to donate their daughter’s organs after her body completely shut down.
“The second bite, she knew something was wrong,” her father, David Glass, told WISN12.
“We believe because this product contained roasted peanut flour, separate from oily peanut butter, that masked this.”
The brownies had been prepped by a women’s group specifically for gluten-free students at Maranatha Baptist University, where Glass was a freshman.
Glass immediately contacted her parents after the brownie triggered hives and vomiting to alert them of the allergic reaction — which was not unusual to other reactions the young woman had had experienced as a kid, her family said in a series of Facebook posts.
The situation took a turn for the worse after Glass took some Benadryl and laid down on her stomach, her family said, leading her to experience shortness of breath, discomfort, a collapsed lung, and eventually, lose consciousness.
Her parents, who rushed to the Watertown campus, administered her EpiPen, called 911 and carried her outside her dorm, where first responders began life-saving measures.
“She was completely unresponsive and I was incredibly helpless,” her family said, adding how their daughter seized and her heart stopped for several minutes in the ambulance before arriving at the hospital.
Glass was put on a ventilator as tests revealed she had severe brain swelling that shut her body down completely.
“When Hannah rolled on her side, the Anaphylaxis reaction that we had not seen before hit her incredibly hard. This caused her to gasp for breath, leading to the collapsing of a lung, further exacerbating the situation and making the ability of us, the EMTs, and the doctor at Watertown hospital impossible to fix,” her family posted.
“The majority of her brain was unmistakably, seriously, critically, and without the life-sustaining measures in place, TERMINALLY damaged. There were no conversations about quality of life or anything like that. This was only life and death!”
The heartbroken parents took their daughter off life support on Nov. 10 — choosing to use their tragedy as an opportunity to save the lives of others in critical condition.
Hundreds of family members, friends and medical staff lined the hallways of Froedtert Hospital for an emotional Honor Walk as Glass was wheeled into surgery for her organs to be donated, according to a video her family posted to social media.
Glass’s primary organs have since saved four lives, CBS 58 reported.
“No parent should ever have to feel this way. If we can save anybody else this depth of pain, at our expense, we must do it,” her father told the outlet.
“She was an amazing, amazing girl, and I’m thankful to see how many lives she has touched and will continue to touch,” Glass’s mother, Janean, added.