A bride-to-be has tragically died after she used the wrong spoon to stir her tea, just days after she got engaged.
Jess Prinsloo, 24, is believed to have died as a result of her acute dairy allergy while on a romantic holiday in South Africa with her partner Craig McKinnon, also 24, The Sun reports.
Craig proposed to her at God’s Window viewpoint in Mpumalanga, South Africa on December 27.
The marketing executive from Salisbury, Wiltshire in the UK said yes and the pair celebrated for a number of days before they travelled to her mum’s house in Johannesburg on December 30.
She came into contact with milk and went into anaphylaxis, an allergic reaction where the throat closes up and Jess sadly died the following day in hospital.
“It’s difficult to find clarity in today, the worst day of my life,” Craig wrote a heartbreaking post on social media.
“But a point I have never been clearer on, the 3+ years I got with my Jess are irreplaceable, and I wouldn’t trade them for 60 years with any other person on earth.
“I am devastated, and feeling pain like I’ve never felt before, but anyone that spent time in her company knows what I mean when I say I have been blessed to call her my fiancee [for] the greatest three days of my life.”
The couple met in 2019 while they were at university and moved in together in 2021.
While Jess had many members of her family in South Africa she had not been back for six years and Craig said he knew there was no better place to propose.
“The look on her face … it meant everything,” he told the Mirror.
Excited by the proposal, Jess updated her social media accounts with the news the same day and was inundated with messages from friends and family.
The next update on her Facebook page was to share the terrible news she was in a “critical condition” in hospital.
Craig said Jess was always careful managing her condition but her allergy medication reportedly failed to work during her reaction.
“When Jess died, a part of me died too – but there is no one to blame for her passing away,” he said.
He was woken up by her brother Darren who told him she was having a particularly bad reaction after her allergy medication “wasn’t having the effect it usually has”.
She was rushed to hospital but despite the efforts of the doctors they were unable to save her life.
Jess had been having an allergic reaction since she was nine months old and had to be resuscitated after she came into contact with dairy in a curry when she was 18.
“Another time, she ordered a vegan dessert which shouldn’t have had dairy and she needed antihistamines, an EpiPen and a hospital trip. I haven’t eaten dairy for about three years because it just wasn’t worth the risk,” Craig said.
Following her death, Craig was charged £3700 (A$6584) in medical bills and another £1200 (A$2132) for coroner fees.
Craig and Jess’ family have set up a GoFundMe page to cover the costs and funeral expenses.
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.
