When Hannah Glass decided to eat a homemade brownie, she hadn’t known that days later, her parents would be picking up her cremated remains. The college student had always been cautious about her peanut allergy but there was something hidden in the sweet treat that killed her after only two bites.
Glass had turned 19 only two days before.
A community in Wisconsin is mourning the heartbreaking loss of Hannah Glass, a bright and compassionate freshman at Maranatha Baptist University who tragically lost her life due to an unexpected allergic reaction to a brownie.
On November 5, the young woman, who turned 19 two days before, had a violent reaction to a brownie she received from a friend. The teenager had a known allergy to peanuts, and was usually careful, but she was unaware the sweet treat reportedly contained roasted peanut flour, an ingredient used as a gluten-free alternative.
“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.
“We believe because this product contained roasted peanut flour, separate from oily peanut butter, that masked this,” continued David, who along with Hannah’s mother, Janean, raced about 45 minutes from their home in Milton, Wisconsin, to the school residence in Watertown.
‘Right lung collapsed’
Hannah’s reaction was aggressive and immediate. Her father shares that she had thrown up, welled up with hives, and managed to find some relief with Benadryl.
But when she crawled up to her top bunk to rest, her condition changed dramatically.
“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.
That was when Hannah climbed down the ladder from her bed and lost consciousness “part way down” – before her EpiPen was administered.
“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.”
Paramedics arrived and worked tirelessly to revive her, but Hannah’s heart had stopped for four minutes. She was immediately rushed to Watertown Hospital, before being transferred to Froedtert Hospital, where she was placed on a ventilator.
Brain ‘terminally damaged’
Her family watched helplessly as doctors fought to save her life, but the damage was severe.
“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!”
Despite the tireless efforts of medical professionals, Hannah’s brain suffered critical damage that left her without hope of recovery.
‘Endless walk’
Before Hannah’s final goodbye on November 10, 2024, she was honored with a traditional “Honor Walk,” a touching tribute as she was taken to the operating room for organ donation.
About 300 people lined the walls of the hallway for the walk, her family by her side until their “final goodbye.”
“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.
Hannah’s organs have already saved four people who desperately needed lifesaving transplants.
Hannah Glass’s story is a poignant reminder of how fragile life can be and the importance of food allergy awareness. Her memory lives on not only through the lives she saved but in the hearts of those who knew and loved her.
