Hannah Glass had no idea that her parents would be collecting her cremated ashes a few days after she made the decision to eat a baked brownie.
Although the college student had always been aware of her peanut sensitivity, something in the candy killed her after just two pieces.
It had just been two days since Glass’s 19th birthday.
Hannah Glass, a bright and kind student at Maranatha Baptist University, passed very unexpectedly after an unanticipated allergic reaction to a brownie. Her death has left a community in Wisconsin in mourning.
The young woman, who had just turned 19, reacted violently to a brownie that a friend had given her on November 5. The teen was generally cautious and had a documented peanut allergy, but she was not aware that the candy allegedly contained roasted peanut flour, a gluten-free substitute.
“The second bite, she knew something was wrong,” Hannah’s father, David Glass, told WISN. The dad then explained her friend brought his daughter the brownie from a women’s group on campus and while the treat was made with peanut flour to accommodate gluten-free students, it didn’t consider those with severe peanut allergies.
David and Hannah’s mother, Janean, hurried from their Milton, Wisconsin, home to the school residence in Watertown, which was about 45 minutes away. “We believe because this product contained roasted peanut flour, separate from oily peanut butter, that masked this,” David added.
‘Right lung collapsed’
Hannah’s response was swift and violent. She had thrown up, developed hives, and found some respite with Benadryl, according to her father.
But her condition drastically changed as she crawled up to her top bunk to rest.
“When Hannah rolled on her side, the anaphylaxis reaction that we had not seen before hit incredibly hard. This caused her to gasp for breath, leading to the collapsing of the lung, further exacerbating the situation,” the grieving dad writes in the Facebook post that he shared November 11.
Before receiving her EpiPen, Hannah lost consciousness “part way down” after climbing down the ladder from her bed.
“I picked Hannah up…and carried her outside to wait for the ambulance to arrive,” the father penned. “She was completely unresponsive, and I was incredibly helpless.”
Hannah’s heart had stopped for four minutes, despite the paramedics’ best efforts to revive her. After being taken to Watertown Hospital right away, she was moved to Foedtert Hospital and put on a ventilator.
Brain ‘terminally damaged’
Doctors battled to save her life, but the damage was too great for her family to watch helplessly.
“The majority of her brain was unmistakably, seriously, critically, and without the life-sustaining measures in place, TERMINALLY damaged,” David writes om Facebook of the brain damage sustained after having several seizures, which led to “severe brain swelling.”
“There were no conversations of quality of life or anything like that. This was only life and death!”
Medical personnel worked nonstop, but Hannah’s brain was severely damaged, and there was no chance that she would recover.
‘Endless walk’
Prior to her final farewell on November 10, 2024, Hannah received a heartfelt homage during a customary “Honor Walk” before being brought to the surgery room to donate her organs.
Her family walked behind her till their “final goodbye,” with about 300 people lining the hallway’s walls.
“It seemed like an endless walk, yet it was also going too quickly,” David shared.
‘Good to have her home’
“We went and picked up Hannah’s cremated remains. It was and is a strange mix of emotions. There is still a strong sense of disbelief,” David writes in a November 22, 2024 Facebook post. “Having now, this physical, tangible, memorial of her physical life and body is nice, in one sense, because we now have something to see and to ‘hold on to,’ but it is also very sad because this is certainly not the same relationship that we had before. But, then again, it is good to have her home.”
Now her parents are reminding people with food allergies to “Always be aware. Make sure your EpiPens are up to date,” David said.
Four individuals in dire need of life-saving transplants have already benefited from Hannah’s organs.
