Jack Fowler is ‘lucky’ to be alive after suffering allergic reaction during flight
Jack Fowler has claimed he is “lucky” to be alive after suffering a “terrifying” allergic reaction during a flight.
The 27-year-old former Love Islander alleged that Qatar Airways fed him walnuts in his food twice, despite telling the flight attendant five times that he was anaphylactic.
Although he noticed the mistake the first time, Jack said that when dessert was served, he ate the dish before noticing that it contained nuts.
Flight horror: Jack Fowler is ‘lucky’ to be alive after suffering a severe allergic reaction during a flight
Horror: After taking a scoop of ice cream, Jack said he noticed the crushed pistachios hidden underneath and claimed he “couldn’t breathe properly” because his “throat closed up” and his tongue swelled up.
After taking a scoop of ice cream, Jack said he noticed crushed pistachios on his plate and claimed he “couldn’t breathe right” because his “throat was closing up” and his tongue was swelling up.
The reality star claimed that because ‘reacted quickly’, the plane did not need to make an emergency landing.
Documenting the saga on his Instagram Stories, Jack criticized the airline, saying it “literally could have died.”
Qatar Airways said it requires passengers with “severe food allergies” to notify the airline “no less than 48 hours before flying” with a completed medical form.
From paradise to terrifying: The Love Island star was returning home from a dream vacation in the Maldives when the life-threatening mistake occurred.
Jack said: ‘I told the @qatarairways hostess five times that I was anaphylactic to nuts (life-threatening allergy). As well as asking for peace of mind when each meal was served to me, which was nut free.
‘Getting nuts TWICE is a huge fail from @qatarairways.
‘Within seconds I couldn’t breathe properly after eating the crushed pistachios under my vanilla ice cream. My throat closed up and my tongue felt like it was swelling up. They told me vanilla ice cream was my safest choice. it was not
‘@qatarairways, you have failed in so many ways. I am extremely lucky. The next person might not be.
Dangerous to life: Jack discovered pistachios hidden under his ice cream, after having eaten it
‘For ALL airlines, more must be done to protect the millions of people with severe dietary requirements while they are passengers on board. Our security is in your hands when you fly with your airline.’
A Qatar Airways spokesperson said: “The health and safety of passengers is of the utmost importance to Qatar Airways and we require all passengers with severe food allergies to notify the airline at least 48 hours before flying with an information form. complete medical (MEDIF) as instructed on our website.
“The airline will work with the passenger to reduce the risk of contamination, but since the flights are public, an allergen-free environment is not guaranteed.
“We are aware of an issue involving a passenger who had a reaction to nuts on board and we are investigating the incident.”
It started out well: In the first story he posted to his page, he wrote: ‘IMPORTANT. I’m on this flight with @qatarairways. It is probably the most comfortable, relaxing and clean flight I have ever been on.
Jack went on to document his experience in a series of screenshots, writing: ‘IMPORTANT. I’m on this flight with @qatarairways. It is probably the most comfortable, relaxing and clean flight I have ever been on.
‘Nevertheless! I told my airhost at the beginning of the flight that I am anaphylactic to all nuts. He took note and assured me that it would not be a problem.
‘After selecting my meals, I was later served cakes with walnuts. Fortunately, I saw them and did not eat them. And when I notified my hostess, he was very sorry.
“But this is the kind of situation that could have gone so wrong. Me eating a nut in the air even though I even took an epipen would have given me severe shock and I would very possibly die.
We would have had to divert and land to get me treated in time.
Dangerous: Documenting the saga on his Instagram Stories, Jack blasted the airline, saying it “literally could have died.”
‘The moral of the story is: if you’re a flight attendant reading this, MAKE SURE you have a working system and prevent this kind of thing from happening.
‘If you’re a passenger, SPEAK UP and make sure you don’t relax into your allergies just because you’ve mentioned it.
‘And definitely don’t feel like you’re being a bother by having a dietary requirement.
‘@qatarairways If you discover the air host, don’t penalize him. We talked, I educated him and we moved on. It has been 10/10 before and after.
However, shortly after the first post, Jack returned to Instagram and claimed that he had eaten ice cream containing pistachios after the near miss.
‘Absolute shumbles’: Fortunately, because the reality star ‘reacted quickly’, the plane did not need to make an emergency landing and his epipen managed to save his life
He continued: ‘After posting that last story almost eating nuts after telling my air host multiple times that I’m anaphylactic to them… He’s done it again!
‘There was crushed pistachio under my ice cream?!
“I ate it and immediately knew something was wrong and spit it out. But I also felt my throat close up and my tongue swell. The pilot had contacted different countries to divert and treat me.
‘Fortunately, because I reacted quickly, it wasn’t necessary. But I can’t begin to tell you how terrifying that was.
Lucky to be alive: Former Love Islander, 27, claims Qatar Airways fed him walnuts in his meal twice, despite telling flight attendant five times he was anaphylactic
‘I told you five times that I’m allergic. You gave me nuts twice. I literally could have died. The next person might not be so lucky. An absolute disaster @qatarairways’.
Jack has previously spoken about the “difficulties” of having a nut allergy.
Jack, who appeared on the reality show in 2018, revealed that he has been hospitalized for anaphylactic shock on several occasions due to his condition.
Previously said: ‘It’s important for young people to talk about their allergies because many of them feel embarrassed, especially going through different stages of life like university and mixing with different and new people.
‘It was important for me to get involved in this campaign because I’m someone who has allergies and sometimes it’s hard, but I found it easier the more I talked about it and found that a lot more people have allergies just like me.’
In 2018, Jack shared a photo of himself in the hospital that received widespread support and made headlines.
He continued: “When I posted the photo of myself in the hospital after my anaphylaxis reaction, I received a lot of comments and was a bit shocked. I didn’t expect so many people to be able to relate to me and maybe it’s because not enough people are talking about it. It was very important to tell everyone about this so that more people could talk about their own experiences.’
Shocking: Jack shared this snapshot, taken when he was younger, of him hospitalized, passed out with an oxygen mask taped to his mouth on his Instagram page in 2018.