A sudden and unexpected death in New Jersey has now been identified as the first documented fatality caused by a rare tick-bite complication that is becoming more common. 

The case, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, sheds new light on alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), a little-known, but rapidly emerging, health threat that causes the sudden onset of a meat allergy triggered by certain tick bites.

In the summer of 2024, a 47-year-old unnamed father and airline pilot collapsed in the bathroom of his home and died despite prolonged resuscitation efforts. 

An autopsy found no cardiac, neurological, or respiratory abnormalities, and the death was initially labeled 'sudden and unexplained.' 

Seeking answers, his widow asked a friend, pediatrician Dr Erin McFeely, to review the report. 

McFeely then contacted Dr Thomas Platts-Mills, a University of Virginia allergist who first linked tick bites to red-meat allergy nearly two decades ago.

Alpha-gal syndrome is triggered when the immune system becomes sensitive to a sugar, alpha-gal, found in the cells of mammals such as cows and pigs. 

The allergy is unusual because symptoms appear three to five hours after eating meat, often waking patients from sleep with severe stomach pain, vomiting, or what seems like a sudden gastrointestinal illness. The New Jersey man experienced a reaction four hours after eating beef.

Many victims, and many clinicians, do not recognize these episodes as allergic reactions.

The New Jersey man had experienced a similar episode shortly before his death, waking at 2am with intense abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea after a late steak dinner on a family camping trip. 

'I thought I was going to die,' he told one of his sons afterward. The symptoms resolved, and the family never linked the event to the meal.

During a recent camping trip, the man suffered more than a dozen itchy bites around his ankles, what the family assumed were 'chiggers,' but were likely larval lone star ticks.