Good Morning America kicked off Food Allergy Awareness Week with a segment about 13 year-old Hayden Kreikemeier and his service dog, Trixie. Years ago, Hayden suffered anaphylaxis after eating a candy bar that contained peanuts for which he had a severe allergy. The episode left him in a coma for 5 days.
“I really thought that we had lost him,” Kelly Kreikemeier, Hayden’s mom recalled.
Following the incident, doctors gave the family a dire warning: “He will not live through another reaction. So you’re going to have a choice to make,” Jay Kreikemeier, Hayden’s father, said they were told. “You can either keep him at home and keep him away from everything and keep him 100% safe. Or you can continue to educate people around you.”
The family opted for the latter and three years ago acquired a peanut-sniffing service dog to accompany Hayden wherever he goes.
View the segment here:
