A mother has revealed the frantic messages she swapped with her allergic son after he realised a snack he had just eaten contained walnuts.
Louise Cadman, 56, urged her 25-year-old son George Cadman-Ithell to get immediate help after he began feeling unwell. But he had to run for eight minutes to his home as he was not carrying the adrenaline pen prescribed to tackle severe allergic reactions, having never suffered a serious attack before.
Despite paramedics performing CPR, two months on the university graduate is in a vegetative state in hospital with his family fearing he will not recover. His mother yesterday revealed Mr Cadman-Ithell's heartbreaking situation to raise awareness of how people with even previously mild food allergies can become catastrophically ill.
"F* they contain walnuts!"
He bought a bag of 'saucissons secs' salami in Sidcup, south-east London, on September 20 and messaged his mother to say they were 'nice'. Seconds later he sent her a second text reading: "F* they contain walnuts!"
Mr Cadman-Ithell - likened to an absent-minded professor by his family - had overlooked the words 'aux noix' meaning 'with nuts' in French printed on the salami's packaging. It also had 'with walnuts' written in English further down.
"It's just destroyed us," his mother said yesterday. "I can't bear the thought of this happening to another family."
He was diagnosed when aged five with an allergy to tree nuts - which includes cashews, walnuts and almonds. His worried mother sent him a series of messages asking if he was okay and urging him to get medical help.
Mr Cadman-Ithell ran home, where his husband Joe Nolan, 25, administered his EpiPen. But he went into cardiac arrest and his brain was deprived of oxygen for 26 minutes, causing severe brain damage.
"If you've got an allergy, it can go from being relatively mild to fatal from one attack to the next."
He remained in a vegetative state at a rehabilitation unit at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, north-west London. He is able to open his eyes and breathe independently but is incapable of communicating.
Mrs Cadman recalled that George's first allergic reaction came as a child after eating a Guylian seashell chocolate at his grandparents' house. He 'did his best' to avoid nuts but experienced attacks on 15 occasions. Each time his symptoms eased upon taking antihistamine tablets and he never used his EpiPen.
"This is a time of year when people are trying new foods...they perhaps become complacent like George did."
Saying she hoped discussing her son's life-changing experience would help prevent similar tragedies, Mrs Cadman added: "This is a time of year when people are trying new foods and eating out and going to people's houses..."