WASHINGTON — A 47-year-old New Jersey man has become the first documented death from alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy triggered by tick bites , according to a case study published Wednesday in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in Practice.

The airline pilot died in September 2024 after eating a hamburger at a backyard cookout, approximately four hours after his meal. His son discovered him unconscious on the bathroom floor at 7:37 p.m., surrounded by vomit. He could not be revived.

An initial autopsy found no evidence of heart attack or other obvious causes, ruling the death "sudden and unexplained." But months of detective work by researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine revealed the previously healthy man had suffered fatal anaphylaxis from alpha-

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