New Jersey pilot, 47, becomes first known death from red meat allergy caused by a tick bite
Dad’s tragic final moments before dying from meat allergy blamed on tick bite
- The man who died from a life-threatening red meat allergy caused by a tick bite was a 47-year-old father and pilot who was in good health before a fateful camping trip with his family in summer 2024.
- The family first noticed something was wrong after eating a late steak dinner at 10 p.m. as the dad began to experience severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting four hours later.
- He recovered but two weeks on, he ate red meat again, this time a hamburger at a barbecue at around 3 p.m. His son found him collapsed on the bathroom floor hours later and tried to save him but he was pronounced dead at the hospital seven hours after the barbecue.
- Initially deemed a "sudden unexplained death," his wife and medical professionals later linked his death to alpha-gal syndrome after discovering extreme sensitization to the alpha-gal molecule in his blood.
- Alpha-gal syndrome, for which there is no cure, can cause severe anaphylactic reactions, and experts advise investigating severe abdominal pain after eating red meat as a possible symptom.