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The husband of a Long Island doctor who died of a severe allergic reaction after eating at a Disney World restaurant is suing the Walt Disney Company and the restaurant, alleging that his wife was served allergens despite being assured not to. I would.
The doctor, Kanokporn Tangsuan, died in October after dining with her husband, Jeffrey Piccolo, at the Raglan Road Irish Pub restaurant in a section of the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, according to Mr. Piccolo’s report. lawsuit, which was filed on February 22.
Dr. Tangsuan, 42, of Carle Place, New York, was a family medicine specialist affiliated with New York University Langone Hospital on Long Island. She and Piccolo were visiting Disney World with Piccolo’s mother when Dr. Tangsuan died, according to the lawsuit.
Brian R. Denney, Piccolo’s attorney, said in a statement that Dr. Tangsuan’s death had been “totally avoidable.” The couple, Denney said, “trusted Disney’s Raglan Road to follow proper protocols and deliver on its repeated promises to serve allergen-free food.”
Inquiries sent to Disney and the restaurant seeking comment were not immediately returned.
As described in the lawsuit, the events leading up to Dr. Tangsuan’s death unfolded as follows:
She, Mr Piccolo and Mr Piccolo’s mother went to dinner at the Raglan Road pub on October 5. Dr. Tangsuan was highly allergic to dairy and nuts, and she and her husband chose the restaurant because, based on Disney advertising that accommodating people with food allergies was a priority at its resorts, they believed it would count. with the necessary safeguards to protect people with these allergies.
When a waiter approached their table, the couple told him about Dr. Tangsuan’s food allergies, said she needed allergen-free foods, and asked if various menu items contained allergens.
The waiter went to consult with the chef about whether certain foods could be prepared without allergens, returned to the table, said that they could, and guaranteed that what Dr. Tangsuan would be served was allergen-free food.
The couple questioned the waiter several more times to confirm that the food Dr. Tangsuan was ordering was allergen-free, and were “unequivocally” assured that it would be.
Based on that assurance, Dr. Tangsuan ordered onion rings and items labeled “I’m Sure Fried,” “Scallop Forest,” and “This Shepherd Goes Vegan.”
When the waiter returned with Dr. Tangsuan’s order, some of the items did not have flags marking them as allergen-free. Dr. Tangsuan and Mr. Piccolo asked again about the presence of allergens and the waiter again said that Dr. Tangsuan’s food was allergen-free.
Dr. Tangsuan, Mr. Piccolo, and Mr. Piccolo’s mother ate. When they were done, the two women went shopping nearby and Mr. Piccolo returned to his hotel with his leftover food.
Approximately 45 minutes later, Dr. Tangsuan had a severe allergic reaction after entering the Planet Hollywood establishment. He began having severe difficulty breathing, collapsed to the floor and used an EpiPen. Soon someone called 911 and Dr. Tangsuan was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
An autopsy performed by the District 9 medical examiner’s office in Orlando, Florida, determined the cause of death to be anaphylaxis or a severe allergic reaction. The autopsy report notes Dr. Tangsuan’s history of dairy and peanut allergies and says she had used an EpiPen before becoming unresponsive. The manner of death was accidental, the report said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2021 that 6.2 percent of American adults age 18 and older had food allergies, although deaths caused by such allergies are rare. For example, there were 24 deaths from food allergies in New York City between 2000 and 2014, including four from peanuts, according to a study published in The Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.
claire fahy contributed with reports.