A New Jersey airline pilot who died after contracting a rare disease caused by a tick bite that made him allergic to red meat has been identified as father of three Brian Paul Waitzel, who was found unconscious by his teen son after eating a burger.
The 47-year-old JetBlue pilot had unknowingly contracted alpha-gal syndrome last year, and first became gravely ill after eating a steak on a family camping trip, leaving him “writhing in pain, having diarrhea and vomiting,” his wife, Pieper.
Two weeks later, still unaware of his condition, Waitzel ate a burger at a barbecue. Just four hours later, his son found him on the bathroom floor in a pool of vomit. He died later that night.
Blood tests would later confirm his grim status as the first documented fatality of the obscure disease, brought on by a lone star tick bite, which causes severe allergic reactions to beef, pork and lamb.
Instances of alpha-gal have spiked in recent decades as the population of lone star ticks has flourished in the Tri-State Area, with 400 diagnoses in New Jersey in 2024 and some 3,700 suspected cases on Eastern Long Island between 2017 and 2022.
The disease is communicated via a sugar molecule found in the saliva of certain tick species. Once contracted, some sufferers experience a hyper immune response that results in a major allergic reaction once they encounter it again.
