A 13-year-old girl died of a severe allergic reaction just hours after taking one sip of a Costa Coffee hot chocolate following a “failure to follow processes”, an inquest concluded last month.
Hannah Jacobs had a severe dairy allergy and suffered an immediate reaction while out with her mother in London in February 2023 after drinking the beverage, which should have been made with soya milk.
Assistant coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said:
“The root cause of this death is a failure to follow the processes in place to discuss allergies combined with a failure of communication between the mother and the barista.”
The coroner noted that on the day of her death “neither Hannah nor her mother were carrying an EpiPen that had been prescribed”.
In a statement issued by the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, Hannah’s parents called for the government to bring in an “allergy tsar”.
A member of Ms Duyile’s legal team read a statement outside East London coroner’s court on her behalf, saying:
“Having heard all the evidence over the last week, it is clear to me that although the food service industry and medical professionals are required to have allergy training, the training is really not taken seriously enough.
“Better awareness is really needed in these industries and across society of the symptoms of anaphylaxis. Allowing people who serve food and drinks to retake an allergy training test 20 times is not acceptable.”
Hannah was allergic to dairy, along with fish and eggs, since she was a toddler. A post-mortem examination found Hannah died after suffering from a hypersensitive anaphylactic reaction triggered by an ingredient in her hot chocolate that caused an allergic response.
Her mother ordered two takeaway soya hot chocolates from the coffee chain and Ms Duyile told the coffee shop staff that her daughter had an allergy and that it was vital for staff to clean the equipment when they made her drink.
Hannah collapsed in a nearby chemist where a pharmacist administered an EpiPen injection in her leg. Hannah was rushed to hospital where she sadly lost her life.
The parents of 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died in 2016 after suffering a severe allergic reaction to sesame baked into a Pret-a-Manger baguette, have called for “urgent” government action to “improve understanding” of allergies across schools, businesses and society generally.
Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, co-founders of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, a food allergy charity, said:
“Today, along with Hannah’s grief-stricken mum Abi and on behalf of other parents who have lost children to food allergies, we once again urge the government to appoint an allergy tsar – a national champion for the one in three people who live not just with food allergies, but all types of allergic disease including asthma and eczema.”
The inquest heard that, at the time of Hannah’s death on 8 February 2023, allergen training for new Costa staff involved online modules that could be accessed at home and a quiz that trainees had to pass.
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