The patient: A 47-year-old woman in Canada
The symptoms: The woman underwent a lung transplant to treat interstitial lung disease, which involves harmful inflammation and scarring of lung tissue. While recovering in the hospital, she ate a bowl of breakfast cereal, which activated a nearly two-hour episode of flushing, itching, shortness of breath and low blood pressure.
This severe, life-threatening allergic reaction is known as anaphylaxis. A report of the woman's case does not mention specific treatment she received for this reaction, but it notes that it resolved after two hours.
(Treatment for anaphylaxis involves epinephrine (also called adrenaline), and it can also require antihistamines, cortisone, oxygen and beta-agonists, such as albuterol, which help improve breathing.)
What happened next: The woman experienced the sam...
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