"The report says a 47-year-old airplane pilot in New Jersey fell ill four hours after eating a hamburger at a barbecue in 2024. The man's son found him unconscious on the floor of a bathroom surrounded by vomit. The man was declared dead at a hospital. The autopsy cited a "sudden unexplained death." Two weeks before he died, the man had become ill several hours after eating a steak dinner, waking up with abdominal discomfort, writhing in pain, having diarrhea and vomiting."
""I thought I was going to die," he told his son. But the man and his wife decided not to consult a doctor, saying they weren't sure how to explain what had happened. A blood sample collected after the man's death showed he had an allergic reaction. His wife said that earlier that summer, he had 12 or 13 "chigger," or tiny mite larvae, bites around his ankles that left itchy, small bumps."
"Alpha-gal syndrome is a tick-borne illness that causes a red meat allergy. Alpha-gal is a sugar molecule found in mammals like cows, pigs and lambs. It's also found in the saliva of some ticks. Humans don't produce the molecule so when a tick transmits it, alpha-gal can produce a hive-like rash or an anaphylactic reaction about 2-6 hours after a person consumes meat."
A 47-year-old airplane pilot in New Jersey became ill about four hours after eating a hamburger and was later found unconscious and died, with autopsy listing a sudden unexplained death. Two weeks earlier he experienced severe abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea several hours after a steak dinner. Postmortem blood testing showed an allergic reaction. The man had numerous small bites earlier in the summer that were likely lone star tick larvae. Alpha-gal is a sugar molecule transmitted by some ticks that can sensitize humans, causing delayed hive-like rashes or anaphylaxis 2–6 hours after consuming mammalian meat.
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