Teenager's horrific allergic reaction after eating burger

A Year 12 student said she thought she was going to die when a horrific allergic reaction to a low-carb burger saw her throat start to close over.

What was supposed to be a relaxing family outing in Adelaide’s CBD took just minutes to turn into a nightmare for Strathalbyn teenager Jade Kwong, 18, and her mother, Rena.

Jade has been aware of her nut allergy for 15 years and says she has always been vigilant about what she orders.

But it was a burger marketed as “low carb”, purchased from a popular chain, which almost killed the South Australian.

“They brought it out to us and it looked different to what I had previously had before and mum was like we didn’t order that, but she [the waitress] was like this is the new low carb bun,” Jade told Today Tonight, saying it took just minutes to hamper her breathing.

“I was very scared, I didn’t know what was going to happen to me, I thought I could even die.”

Rena rushed Jade to the Royal Adelaide hospital, as she frantically phoned the burger bar to check the ingredients.

She demanded the burger chain send her a photograph of the ingredients, with the employee confirming her worst fears.

“I saw there was almond meal, it was part of the low carb bun and so I knew straight away that meant nuts and that meant there was possibility that Jade was in really grave danger,” Ms Kwong explained.

She said there had been a lot of promotion about the low carb bun, but said nothing indicated it may have contained traces of nuts.

Fortunately, the pair were in close proximity of the hospital, getting Jade the immediate treatment she required.

While the teen has since made a full recovery, Ms Kwong said she knows things could have gone very differently had they not been in such close proximity of the hospital.

Flinders University Dr Billy Tao said many popular healthy foods do now contain nuts, adding that Jade’s case could have been lethal.

“Compared with, say ten years ago, we have more people allergic to nuts or even other allergies,” Dr Tao said.