College student with severe peanut butter allergy dies

PONTIAC, Mich. — A 19-year-old Oakland University student who was in a coma for a week with a severe allergic reaction to peanut butter died Wednesday night at a hospital, according to reports from the university.

Chandler Swink, a sophomore and aspiring nursing student, had been hospitalized since Nov. 18, when he came in contact with peanut butter at a friend's house. He drove himself to St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital in Pontiac and was found unconscious in the parking lot.

Doctors told Swink's relatives that he simultaneously suffered anaphylactic shock, and asthma attack and cardiac arrest.

"Chandler Swink's death is a tragic loss for our university," Glenn McIntosh, OU interim vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, said in a news release Thursday. "He was a scholarship student with a passion for learning and had a very bright future. We offer our condolences and stand by to support his family, friends and his girlfriend."

An online GoFundMe fund-raiser amassed nearly $30,000 by Thursday night to help the family with expenses associated with the tragedy.

The university reports Swink graduated from Avondale High School and was the 2013 recipient of the Oakland University Huntington Ford Scholarship, a four-year, full-tuition scholarship offered to an incoming freshman from a Rochester-area high school.