A 15-year-old girl with a peanut allergy did not die from kissing her boyfriend following his snack of peanut butter, a Quebec coroner said Friday, countering a report that drew international attention last year.
Saguenay coroner Michel Miron said Christina Desforges died from another cause. However, he refused to disclose that, saying he first wanted to report to the provincial coroner’s office as well as examine more test results.
But Miron said he was speaking out now to head off an allergy association from using the case as an example.
“The Canadian Association of Food Allergies intended to use the Desforges case to launch an education campaign,” he said. “I had to tell them the cause of death was different than first believed.”
Miron wasn’t available on Friday to comment further on the circumstances of the teen’s death in this small city, about 155 miles north of Quebec City.
Christina Desforges died in a Quebec hospital in November. Reports at the time said doctors were unable to treat her allergic reaction to the kiss the previous weekend.
Miron also said the teen didn’t receive a shot of Adrenalin immediately after being kissed. It was reported the shot hadn’t penetrated her skin.
He said scientific journals had contacted him questioning the use of Adrenalin shot and how it’s injected.
But he said the teen didn’t use her syringe to give herself a shot of Adrenalin because she didn’t have an allergic reaction to peanut butter.