Girl died from sip of Costa Coffee drink after ‘failure to follow allergies processes’

5 comments

1. If i was deathly allergic to something i wouldnt risk a min wage worker getting that shit right.

   mistakes happen.

   maybe its time people who have seriously bad allergies stop going out to dine at these establishments that arent michelin starred.

2. A 13-year-old girl with a severe dairy allergy died after drinking a Costa Coffee hot chocolate after a “failure to follow the processes in place to discuss allergies”, an inquest has concluded.

   Hannah Jacobs, from Barking, east London, who had been severely allergic to dairy, fish and eggs since she was a toddler, died within hours of taking a sip of the drink on 8 February 2023, east London coroner’s court was told.

   The assistant coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said there had been “failure of communication” between Hannah’s mother and the coffee shop staff, which led to hot chocolate that was made with cows’ milk instead of soya milk being served.

   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 also noted that on the day of her death, “neither Hannah nor her mother were carrying an EpiPen that had been prescribed”.

   Awful. Completely avoidable and such a waste of life.

   I don’t go to these commercial coffee chains, but if I were *deathly* allergic to dairy, I feel I would avoid them like the plague.

3. Am I reading this correctly that there’s no direct apportionment of blame?

   The mothers statements made it clear she asked for the jug to be washed and advised of the allergy.
   The barista appears to have acknowledged that the jug washing was requested which in itself gives weight to the mothers statement being accurate.

   So many questions. Why wash a jug and not be switched on to the reasons, just as much as Why order a drink and not watch it being made?

   Useless fact of the day, Costa machines are deliberately placed sideways to the counter to allow the barista to engage with the customer.

4. I think the issue is that nobody knew how allergic she was – certainly didn’t know that she could have died. She’d never had a ‘bad’ reaction before, so I presume this is why the mother thought it was okay to not carry the epi pen.

   I think what the report is getting at is that staff should know that any mention of ‘allergy’ can also mean ‘this person could die’, which clearly the barista did not know and clearly the Costa did not train people to know.

   Having said that – if I was the mother and my child had a an allergy that necessitated use of an epi pen, and I wanted a hot chocolate, I’m 100% making that at home and not putting it in the hands of someone on minimum wage who can barely speak English.

5. It’s on the mother.

   Daughter is severely deathly allergic to milk and you take her to a coffee shop and order a hot chocolate, where English is your second language. You refuse to carry an epi pen or listen to steps to avoid shock, like lying the girl down after ingestion.

   You can’t do all of that and put your daughter’s life in the hands of someone on minimum wage, who may not have heard you properly, may not have thought you were serious or may not have been trained properly.