This 15-Year-Old Who’s Allergic To Almost Everything Could Die From Just One Whiff Of Cooking Oil

Jan 24, 2019 by apost team

Imagine being allergic to all odors in the air. Aside from oxygen, anything in the air causes your body to go into potentially deadly anaphylactic shock. That’s the life 15–year-old Martina Baker lives every single day of her life.

Baker was a healthy, active, and happy 13-year-old living a ‘normal’ life in Maine. That all changed when she awoke one day covered in itchy, red hives and nearly unable to breathe from her throat being so swollen. It would be the first of many allergy attacks.

Each one would land her in the hospital, and these allergy attacks seemed like they were unprovoked. In fact, doctors were clueless as to why the teen was having multiple allergy attacks each week. Her parents took Baker to multiple specialists, from cardiologists to psychologists, for answers.

Finally, a Massachusetts immunologist, Jonathan Bayuk, was able to explain Baker’s mysterious ailment. Baker has MCAS, or mast cell activation syndrome. The rare immunological syndrome leaves Baker allergic to the smells in the air.

If she breathes in water, heat, smoke, bleach, detergents, perfume, cooking odors, and so forthcoming Baker has an allergic response that can result in anaphylactic shock, which can be fatal.

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A skunk spraying outside Baker’s window resulted in a trip to the hospital with anaphylaxis. When she returned home, her windows and doors had to be sealed for weeks. She has to wear a mask when she goes outside.

Her family has to practice odorless cooking, which means a lot of outdoor grilling. Her bedroom can’t be heated; her mom calls her a penguin for surviving the unheated conditions in Maine winters.  

Baker described a lonely life that’s left her without many friends, unable to do normal teen things like just going to a movie theatre and the subject of mocking and rude comments when people see her in her mask.

Then, Baker’s mom discovered something that would change her daughter’s young life forever. Caiomhe. No, that’s not a medicine. Caiomhe is a service dog. Caiomhe has been trained to alert Baker when she’s about to have an attack.

The dog’s nose, which is 100,000 times more sensitive than humans, can alert Baker when smells are present in the air. Caiomhe also alerts when Baker’s histamine levels rise. That’s not to mention that Baker now has a loyal and nonjudgmental friend in her new service animal. 

Thanks to Caiomhe and regular mast cell stabilizing drugs, Baker’s episodes of anaphylaxis have gone from multiple times a week to once every month to six weeks.

It’s hard to imagine living with MCAS, right? But, what a wonderful, life-changing thing service animals are to us, humans. Do you know someone with severe allergies? Leave us a comment with your thoughts and questions, and don’t forget to pass this along to others if it moved you.