NEW YORK — Authorities are working to determine the cause of death of an 11-year-old New York boy.
Steven Jean-Pierre said his son, Camron Jean-Pierre, had a fish allergy. New York Daily News reported that they arrived at a family member's house for a New Year's party, where fish was being cooked.
"We knew he had an allergy ... but usually, he don't get nothing that severe like that," Jean-Pierre told the New York Daily News. "He don't eat fish. We don't put it around him. It just so happens they was cooking it when we came in."
Camron’s family suspects particles in the air from the cooked fish caused him to have a reaction.
WCBS reported Camron began showing symptoms of a reaction and his family hooked him up to a breathing machine. Daily News reported the boy had asthma, so a nebulizer was used.
“I don’t know. For some reason he was saying it wasn’t working,” Jean-Pierre said. “He kept telling me, ‘I’m not able to breathe.’”
Dad recounts desperate attempts to save son who died of suspected allergic reaction to smell of cooking fish https://t.co/aHNRtk75G9 pic.twitter.com/5cVGHiIk4b
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) January 3, 2019
Camron lost consciousness 15 minutes later and his father called 911.
“It felt like he had no pulse,” Jean-Pierre said. “I tried to give him the CPR and he came back but I wish I knew (how) to keep pumping him because he woke up and I felt his heart and everything. But I stopped and sat him up to make him feel better.
“He told me, ‘Daddy, I love you. I love you,’”Jean-Pierre said. “He gave me two kisses.”
Camron was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he died.
“That was my prince, man,” Jean-Pierre said. “He was my everything.”
WNBC reported that the medical examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine if the smell of fish did in fact trigger an allergic reaction. Police said the food allergy appears to have caused the death and they don't suspect criminality.
Cox Media Group
