Case Study

15-year-old George (not his real name) has Spina Bifida, but not Hydrocephalus, and is walking.

Over the years he has had problems with his bladder and bowels. So far, he has had five operations.

He first had problems, possibly with latex, when he was about six years old.

When he came home from school one day, his face started to swell, his nose disappeared and his eyes were like tiny slits.

I rushed him to our GP who wanted him to take medication daily (I think some sort of anti histamine). The doctor said it was the worst case he had ever seen.

I gave him the medicine but as the weeks went by no other attack followed. As he was already on permanent antibiotics I felt uneasy about so much medication and eventually stopped giving it to him.

From then on, about 2-3 times a year he would have swollen watery eyes, feel unwell and sometimes his face would swell, but never as badly as the first time. We started to think of hay fever, but our GP thought it was not worth having him tested. We started to suspect latex when we bought him a latex mask at the seaside.

He wore it for a short time before we realised his face was red and swollen. When George was about 14, after a dental examination, he came out in red blotches, swelling and blisters around and in his mouth.

The next visit, very soon after, was worse. He then had the same symptoms but also could not breathe properly and had pains in his chest. At this stage I insisted that he was tested. He was diagnosed as latex allergy Type 1 at Hospital.The skin prick test also showed a very small reaction to pollen.

Since then he has had two reactions, once when he had to leave a hospital where he was visiting a patient because his eyes were very sore and watery, and recently he came home with sore, watery eyes and also breathing problems and chest pains.