Allergic Girl, 8, Dies of Fumes From Garbanzos

Fumes from a pot of cooking garbanzos killed an 8-year-old girl who was allergic to the beans, her doctor said Thursday.

Nita Sekhri was at a friend’s house Sunday when she inhaled mist from across the kitchen, Dr. Mark Goetting said. She had many food allergies and the beans were on her list of items to avoid.

“It was a fluke,” Goetting said. “It’s something no one could have predicted.”

Nita’s medicated inhaler was not enough to combat the reaction, he said. She went into a coma and died Wednesday.

Dr. John Yunginger, an allergies expert and pediatrics consultant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said fatal reactions from allergies are rare and death by fumes happens even less often.

Each year, about 50 to 100 people in the United States die from allergic reactions, mostly from foods, he said.

Garbanzo beans are tossed in salads and are often ground into a paste for hummus, a popular Middle Eastern dish.