13-year-old girl dies after drinking Costa Coffee hot chocolate due to ‘non-compliance with allergy guidelines’ | UK news
The death of a 13-year-old girl after taking a sip of Costa Coffee hot chocolate was due to “failure to follow existing procedures for discussing allergies,” a coroner ruled.
There was also a “communication failure” between staff at the Costa in Barking, east London, and the girl’s mother, the East London Coroners’ Court heard on Friday.
Hannah Jacobs, who suffered from a severe allergy to dairy, fish and eggs since childhood, died on February 8, 2022, a few hours after taking a sip of the drink containing cow’s milk.
Deputy Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said: “The actual cause of death is failure to follow established procedures for discussing allergies and a lack of communication between the mother and the barista.”
The coroner also noted that on the day of her death, “neither Hannah nor her mother carried a prescribed EpiPen.”
An autopsy revealed that Hannah died of an anaphylactic hypersensitivity reaction triggered by an ingredient in her hot chocolate that caused an allergic reaction.
The investigation revealed that the teenager had a “immediate reaction” to the drink, even though her mother had ordered two hot chocolates with soy milk.
Her mother, Abimbola Duyile, told the hearing that she was taken to a pharmacy after drinking the hot chocolate, complaining of chest pains and that her lips and mouth were very swollen and itchy.
Urmi Akter, who served Hannah’s mother, testified in court that she asked the question: “Can you wash the jug because my daughter is allergic to milk?”
In accordance with Costa’s allergen rules, Ms Duyile was not shown a book with nutritional recommendations.
In her statement, Ms Akter said she did not show the book to Ms Duyile “because she told me that washing the jug was not a problem”.
Hannah tried the drink on the way to the dentist, after which she felt unwell and nurses offered Ms Duyile an EpiPen containing 300mg of adrenaline, dentist Iqra Farhad told the court.
Ms Farhad said this could have saved Hannah’s life, but Ms Duyile instead decided to go to the pharmacy and get an antihistamine called cetirizine.
She told the court she had only seen Hannah briefly and said there were “no signs of panic or distress”.
When they arrived at the pharmacy, there were no EpiPens available due to general shortages, said pharmacist Santokh Kahlon.
He said in court that he would have “definitely” used the extra EpiPen from the dentist if he had known one was there.
Zeenat Panirwala, a customer of the pharmacy at the time, added that Ms Duyile found it “difficult” to process what had happened when she saw Hannah in distress.
She said Ms Duyile blamed Costa for giving her child the drink and was “hysterical, saying ‘She’s dead, she’s dead'”.
Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, whose 15-year-old daughter Natasha died after eating a Pret a Manger baguette that contained sesame seeds, attended Hannah’s inquest.
A subsequent statement said there was an “urgent” need for government action to help “schools, businesses and society” better understand that “food allergies can be a serious and unpredictable health condition – not a lifestyle choice.”
“Together with Hannah’s grieving mother Abi, and on behalf of other parents who have lost children to food allergies, we are today again calling on the Government to appoint an Allergy Tsar – a national advocate for the one in three people who live with not just food allergies, but all types of allergic conditions, including asthma and eczema,” they said.
“How many more children have to die before we start taking food allergies seriously?”
Following Natasha’s death in July 2016, the law was changed to require all grocery stores to provide a full ingredient list and allergy labelling on foods pre-packaged for direct sale.
Stay up to date with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Tap here
This breaking news story will be updated and further details will be released shortly.
Please refresh the page for the full version.
You can receive breaking news on your smartphone or tablet via the Sky News AppYou can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay up to date with the latest news.
