Young Girl Finds Escape in Figuring Skating from Extreme Allergy

Jan. 9, 2010— -- On the ice, she's a force to be reckoned with, and nothing can stop her. But off the rink, 12-year-old Kendall Hollenger navigates a world where harmless, everyday things can kill her.

"There's been times where I have literally wanted to scream because I am in so much pain ," said Kendall.

Kendall is in pain because she is allergic to almost everything. Not only could 95 percent of food make her sick, but anything that food has come in contact with could also be dangerous to her.

"She will have respiratory distress, lose her voice and she has also had loss of consciousness, trouble breathing, and turn blue and pale," said Kendall's doctor, Michael Kaplan, who is with the Department of Allergy at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles..

It's so severe that Kendall must eat primarily through a feeding tube, the only way to ultimately ensure that the food will be safe for her.

Kendall's mother, Kim Hollenger, morphed from being a regular mother into a 24-hour care provider.

"You just wonder how you will get through the day," Hollenger said. "You go through days without sleep and worry and fear. The hardest part is just that I want to switch places with her."

For a young girl allergic to almost everything, the world is a very dangerous place.

She can have a reaction just from touching a surface where food she is allergic to has been.

Sometimes the air itself can be lethal. Certain airborne particles can send her into anaphylaxis, a severe reaction that slowly closes her throat.

She has almost died from such reactions numerous times.

No parent expects to see their child ever face death, but Hollenger has already seen her daughter come face to face with death eight times before she even turned 12 years old.

"The hardest part is hearing her say, 'Please don't let me die. Please, don't let me die.' She says it over and over," Hollenger said. "And the whole time I'm trying to put on a face that everything is OK."