Today, Sam Duty can eat peanut butter sandwiches and candies
easily, but at one time in the 9-year-old's life, ingesting
peanuts was dangerous and possibly lethal because he was highly
allergic to peanuts. His mother, Angela Duty, worried about even
the smallest interactions with peanuts. "The first small bite of
peanut butter — his lips started to swell," Duty said. "It's
horrible. You know, you want the best for your children, and
you're fighting something you can't see." Nearly half of the 150
deaths attributed to food allergies each year in the United
States are caused by peanut allergies, according to Duke
University. Once, Sam had to be hospitalized after ingesting
peanuts. He was like so many other children, who have life-
threatening reactions that can occur from even trace amounts of
peanuts. "I'm the mom that calls ahead of time and asks what
they're going to eat, where they're going to eat, how they're
going to eat," Duty said. So when Sam was asked to be a part of
a groundbreaking study that would