By Adi Courtney ~ May 9th, 2024

My name is Adi Courtney, I am 44 years old, I live on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. On the 9th April 2024 I went through a near death experience following a simple social gathering and after doing a lot of healing and processing, I decided this happened to me so that I would tell my story and help save lives. Please share my story and educate yourself further on the following topic and help me raise awareness world wide..

No known allergies

For someone who is not allergic to anything, has never had an allergic reaction, has never had asthma or breathing problems and no previous history of allergies and to suddenly and I mean suddenly react to something as normal as pancakes, which by the way, I would call one of my breakfast staples, the way I did was nothing less than a mystery.

Near death experience

I was invited to a birthday brunch with 8 other guests. Main food was pancakes and the table had lots of beautiful spreads from commercial products such as a hazelnut spread, an assortment of jams, a fruit compot, a selection of homemade jams and a nut breakfast cereal. I only had 1 pancake as pictured above and I cut my pancake into quarters, I remember this because there was such a vast selection of delicious items on the table that I wanted to try a few. on 1 quarter I placed the hazelnut spread, 1 quarter had jam, another quarter had nut cereal and honey and the last quarter had a home-made jam. I really enjoyed the brunch and the conversations until exactly 30 min after I finished eating. I started to feel hot, sweaty and I needed to go outside for some fresh air. Had I had known that what I was experiencing was the beginning of a life threatening anaphylactic reaction, I would have probably panicked even more. never the less, I headed straight to the bathroom, twice. I suddenly felt very ill, I felt like I was on fire from the inside. I’ve had food poisoning before and I have never felt such powerful sensations that my body was going through. My ears felt like they were going to explode and I suddenly couldn’t get out of the bathroom. It took me a few minutes to get up and walk back to my friends, by this point I was short of breath, gasping for air like a fish out of water. My friends took me outside, where they gave me anti-histamine, vitamin C tablet but nothing was working, and I started getting heart palpitations, my heart was racing and as I realised that I was losing more and more oxygen I began to panic and anxiety kicked in. They tried to keep me calm, I managed to go and lie down and they gave me an asthma inhaler and I took 2 puffs. nothing was working and I was getting much worse when the decision was made to rush me to the Greymouth Hospital. Did I mention that there were 2 of us going through similar symptoms?! This had become even more bizarre. We were both put in the car and off we went.

The car ride

It was a 20min car ride to the hospital. I struggled to breath the entire way, gasping for the little bit of air I could. It was horrible. but in order to keep myself calm, the only thing I could control at this point was my mind, so I started saying to myself positive affirmations “this too shall pass” “everything is fine” and I repeated this until we got to the hospital.

At the hospital

We arrived at the hospital and 2 wheelchairs took my friend and I straight into Emergency, and I instantly let go of the control. I was wheeled into 1 large area and placed on the bed which was in the centre of the room. I opened my eyes and suddenly watched as 20 to 30 Doctors and Nurses came at me. They all had a job to do and they worked beautifully together. 3 Epipens went straight into me- 1 on my right thigh, 1 on my left thigh and 1 on my right arm. An oxygen mask covered my face and ventilation steam started flowing through. As you can imagine I was in a state of shock, how the hell did I end up here! 1 minute you’re having breakfast with friends and the next minute your in ED..like WTF. I had a Doctor in 1 ear telling me what was going into me, I had nurses on either side of me poking me with needles, 1 taking blood, 1 pumping me with adrenalin, 1 nurse under my shirt connecting me to heart monitor and I had no idea what the others were doing but everyones main goal was to keep this human alive. I started to get very cold as the adrenalin kicked in and I started shaking all over and I couldn’t stop. I managed to ask what the blood was for and they said we are checking for poison, toxins and drugs. There were so many nurses and doctors working on me until I got my breathing back and the shivers stopped. I don’t know how long this took. Public health turned up and started asking lots of questions. The food that was on the table was dropped off to the hospital and they took that to investigate. My husband and 2 kids arrived just as I began to breath again on my own. I was so sore all over, I was traumatised by what just happened and what my poor body just went through. I was still in shock, my mind looking for answers and asking questions..why? how? what caused it? was my friend ok? is it over? am I going to be ok? apparently all the doctors and nurses were asking the same questions. The main question being…what caused such a drastic reaction in 2 people??? I was finally moved to the critical care unit but I was also on standby with the helicopter ready to take me to Intensive care at Christchurch Hospital. I really didn’t want to go, I hate flying and I didn’t want to leave my family. Luckily I survived the night and I was released from hospital the next day with oral steroids and anti-histamine. I have since also been given epipens to carry with me.

The cause

The food went under crucial investigations with Public health as well as MPI Ministry of public industries who investigate commercial products and if need be, they recall items from retail shelves. It has now been 4 weeks, many phone calls and questions, yet nothing came back showing as the culprit. However, I have a friend who has done their own investigation and some research and discovered the culprit being OMA- Oral Mites Anaphylaxis. Also known as the Pancake syndrome. No-one that I have since spoken to had ever heard of this. Oral mite anaphylaxis (OMA), also known as the pancake syndrome, is characterised as a severe, potentially lethal, acute allergic condition that should be suspected whenever symptoms begin soon after the intake of mite-contaminated foods. Most commonly in flour! From my understanding, being hypersensitive was the reason only 2 of us out of the 9 developed OMA.

Raising Awareness

The reason I am raising awareness is because no-one else is. MPI has said this is out of their jurisdiction and Public Health has not been able to come back with any positive results following their investigations either. I believe that it is now up to me to share my story and raise awareness. From doing my own research, I wish to highlight the following:

– OMA has gone undetected from patients like myself and people are being mis-diagnosed

– OMA may be observed at any age and to children or adults with no previous history of asthma or allergies.

– OMA is currently only being reported in tropical countries. I live in the South Island of New Zealand

– Flour should be stored in a fridge to prevent mite proliferation

– The reason OMA is only likely in Pancakes is because other foods are cooked longer and at higher temperatures

– As my friends and I have never heard of OMA, I was at Stage 4 of having an anaphylactic reaction by the time I got to hospital. There were cases where people have died from OMA. Therefore, I am raising awareness and requesting that you please share my story and do your own research so that you too can be cautious in case a child or adult go through the same symptoms as early diagnosis and treatment can save a life.

– I would love to hear if you think you have been or know someone that has gone through the above and now after reading my story you too believe you had un-diagnosed OMA. Please comment below x

How eating pancakes nearly killed me!