A lunch between friends ended in tragedy yesterday in Rome. An American student on a study trip to the capital died presumably due to an allergic reaction.

The 21-year-old felt ill shortly after eating a sandwich at a restaurant in Rome's Pigneto neighborhood. Anne suddenly began having difficulty breathing.

She ran, together with her friends who were with her, towards the Erasmus student facility on Via Casilina that hosted her, a few meters away, to get cortisone. After the first dose, however, the situation did not improve so she would have taken another. But in the parking lot of the residence she had a respiratory crisis. Her friends attempted a cardiac massage which was then continued, for over half an hour, by the 118 personnel who arrived on the scene. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done for the twenty-one-year-old.

It is believed that she died of anaphylactic shock due to an allergic reaction, possibly to cashews. A linguistic misunderstanding with the restaurant staff may have caused the tragedy.

The body has been handed over to the judicial authorities. The police officers of the Porta Maggiore police station are investigating the matter and, together with the ASL staff, they have carried out checks in the restaurant to establish whether the procedures were followed and, in particular, whether the allergens were clearly indicated on the menu. The investigators assume that the student was unable to communicate to the restaurant staff, due to the language barrier, what she was allergic to.

Anne Avaria Tierney attended Biola University in California and was on a study trip to the Capital. On her Instagram page, a series of photos that portray her in the symbolic places of the Eternal City, from the Colosseum to the Trevi Fountain, as well as at the Olympic Stadium with the Roma scarf and at the amusement park.

(Online Union)