A 13-year-old girl who died after taking a sip of a Costa Coffee hot chocolate may have been served cow’s milk because of a possible “miscommunication”, an inquest has heard.
Hannah Jacobs, who had been severely allergic to dairy, fish and eggs since she was a toddler, died within hours of having a sip of the drink on 8 February 2022.
East London Coroner’s Court heard on Monday the teenager had an “immediate reaction” to the beverage, despite her mother ordering two hot chocolates with soya milk.
Urmi Akter told the court on Tuesday she took the order from Abimbola Duyile for the takeaway drinks. She had been working at the coffee shop in Barking, east London, for about eight months and said she could see and hear Ms Duyile “clearly” at the time.
Ms Akter said Ms Duyile had asked for two hot chocolates, and asked “can you wash the jug because my daughter has a dairy allergy?”
The court heard that under Costa’s rules, customers who ask for a non-dairy product or state they have a dietary requirement should be shown a book kept under the till which includes ingredients and details of how a drink is made.
In her statement, Ms Akter said she did not show Ms Duyile the book “as she told me washing the jug was fine”.
She added: “I thought she, as the mother, would know more about [it]. I gave her the drink she requested.”
Ms Akter then told the court she had repeated Ms Duyile’s request for the jug to be washed and pointed out that hot chocolate is made from milk.
She added Ms Duyile replied “that’s fine”.
Ms Akter was told she did not have to answer certain questions if she felt it would incriminate her as a legal right under coroner’s rules. She was also sat beside a Bengali interpreter as she gave evidence.
She declined to say whether she was trained in her own language, if she had been provided refresher training, if she knew what an allergen is, why she did not confirm whether cow’s milk was used in the drinks, and did not answer other questions.
Assistant coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said: “As far as I understand you said the mother mentioned the dairy allergy.
“The book was not shown to the mother and the only thing done was to make one drink, wash the jug and make the other drink.”
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Emily Slocombe, representing Hannah’s family, also asked: “If you had got out the allergy book and shown and discussed this with Hannah’s mother, this would have been an opportunity for any miscommunications to be cleared up, wouldn’t it?”
Ms Akter also declined to answer this question.
It comes a day after Ms Duyile told the court Hannah was rushed to a chemist after taking a sip of the hot chocolate. She also said the teenager was complaining of chest pains, and her “lips and mouth were very swollen and she was itchy”.
Iqra Farhad, a dentist, also told the court on Tuesday nurses offered Ms Duyile an EpiPen with 300mg of adrenaline, which the inquest heard could have saved Hannah’s life.
Ms Duyile instead went to the chemist for an antihistamine called Cetirizine. Ms Farhad also told the court she saw Hannah only briefly, and said “there was no sign of panicking or distress”.
Pharmacist Santokh Kahlon then said he would “definitely” have used the extra EpiPen from the dentist if he had known there was one.
He told staff to try and find EpiPens, but none could be found as there was a general shortage.
Zeenat Panirwala, a customer in the chemist at the time, added Ms Duyile was “struggling” to come to terms with what was happening as 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'”.
The inquest continues.