Submitted by Aiken Jacobsen on
We send our children to summer camp so that they can enjoy themselves, meet new friends, participate in new activities, and hopefully develop fond and lasting childhood memories. For one Sacramento family however, sending their daughter to summer camp turned into a heartbreaking tragedy.
They have now filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Sacramento, which owned and operated Camp Sacramento, the summer camp where their daughter died from anaphylactic shock after eating an unlabeled treat that contained peanut butter.
The 13-year-old girl and her twin sister, both of whom have had severe peanut allergies since birth, had attended the camp for several years. Their parents informed the camp about the allergy many times, both verbally and in writing, and the girl herself was conscientious about avoiding foods containing peanuts.
The parents claim that the camp was negligent and caused the loss of their loved one by failing to ensure that foods offered to campers either contained no peanuts or were properly labeled to warn children and parents of dangerous contents.
The family alleges that those basic precautions were clearly ignored by camp personnel. According to their complaint, the parents were at the camp with their daughter. She ate a treat from a tray that had no warning that it contained peanut butter.
When her condition was noticed, the parents administered epinephrine, but their own supply was not enough. Because the camp staff was unable to find the key to the cabinet where extra epinephrine was stored, the girl’s father had to open the glass cabinet front with his hand, sustaining serious injuries. However, the delay was too much, and the girl died in her mother’s arms.
It is always an unspeakable tragedy whenever a child is killed. However, when the death of a child is the result of the negligence of someone who has been entrusted with that child’s care, the tragedy is brought to a whole new level. Anyone who has lost a child or loved one as a result of someone else’s negligence may want to consider speaking with an attorney to explore their options for compensation and legal action.
Source: The Associated Press, "Family sues Sacramento over peanut allergy death," April 18, 2014
