United allergy laboratories have recently settled a class-action lawsuit that involved the handling of an allergy test. In this case, the plaintiff had to be tested after spending a considerable amount of time in the emergency room and having her face swelled up in an extremely odd fashion. She also developed a cough that felt like a bee sting. This was not related to any allergy or infection, but rather was a side effect of the antihistamine she was taking. Upon further testing, it was determined the allergy-testing had come back negative. What was the source of this negative result?

United Allergy Labs Lawsuit

The plaintiff and her husband were searching for a reliable place to get allergy tests performed on themselves and their family. They had been doing their own allergy testing for a few years, when something strange happened. An EIA (ema) came on just as they were about to schedule their annual allergy season. This is a common response for allergy sufferers: the body becomes accustomed to the seasonal change and starts to produce less of the chemicals that cause allergy symptoms. This is normal, but the allergy-testing laboratories had never seen an EIA like the one they just had.

The couple called the allergen labs and asked them if they could run another allergy test on the couple.

The response they got was, “We can’t perform an allergy test on you.” They explained that the problem with the previous test was that the homogenous cell material from which the allergy-testing samples were made (which should have been a gold particle) was mixed with goat serum instead of pollen. Goat serum is the standard in allergy testing, but because it isn’t mixed with gold, it doesn’t provide the same purity in the blood that pollen can.

So, the couple decided to try another lab, this time they found one that would allow them to do allergy-testing through a mobile allergy lab.

It was located on the students’ dorm room floor, and they moved in immediately. Upon arrival, the technicians immediately recognized the pollen particles as a mystery allergen. The couple immediately began to feel better, but then the coughing and hacking got worse. Allergy shots didn’t help much and by the end of their second week there was little they could do to alleviate their symptoms.

The third quarter of the year came and went, and during the fourth quarter a severe cold caught them off guard. While at first it didn’t seem like much, it grew into a large outbreak of bronchitis.

By the end of January the couple were sitting down with their doctor trying to decide where to go for allergy testing services. They had exhausted their allergy-testing services in December, so they weren’t really sure if there was any point in continuing to wait for results. When it came time to pick up the testing kits from United allergy laboratories, they noticed a very large package addressed to “Dr. Philip”.

Upon opening the box they found that the kit contained a variety of different assays.

One had been specifically created to identify the mold allergen, another had been created to measure the level of dust in the home, and a third kit was meant to help them determine if their allergies were seasonal or caused by something indoors. Of all the allergens circulating throughout the house, mold and dust were the two most common causes of allergic reactions, so it was important to gather all the data they could about this matter. After running the allergy-testing services and collecting the needed information, the couple decided to keep their allergy records.