An inquest will take place next week into the death of a girl who died after suffering a suspected allergic reaction to a Costa Coffee hot chocolate.
Thirteen-year-old Hannah Jacobs, from Barking in east London, died in February 2023 after sipping the drink, which she believed had been made with soya milk.
The teenager had severe allergies to dairy, egg, fish and wheat, which she had been managing well since she was a toddler.
According to the solicitors Leigh Day, Hannah’s mother had ordered the drink at the branch operated by a Costa Coffee franchise partner in Station Parade, Barking, and informed the barista of her daughter’s dairy allergy, before they went to a dental appointment.
They were in the waiting room when Hannah sipped the drink and told her mother she believed it hadn’t been made with soy milk, as expected. She immediately began to have an allergic reaction.
They rushed to a nearby pharmacy where staff administered an EpiPen, an emergency adrenaline injection which is used to treat anaphylaxis. An ambulance arrived shortly afterwards and rushed Hannah to Newham university hospital, but staff were unable to save her and she was pronounced dead at 1pm on 8 February 2023.
The inquest will open on Monday at East London coroner’s court and is scheduled to last for five days. Costa Coffee has not commented on the proceedings.
Hannah’s case echoes that of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died in 2016 at the age of 15 after suffering a severe reaction to a sandwich from Pret a Manger.
According to the law at the time, the sandwich did not require an allergy label as it had been made on site, but the artichoke, olive and tapenade baguette sandwich was later discovered to contain sesame seeds that weren’t declared on the packet.
The teenager was severely allergic to nuts and fell ill and died on a flight to Nice.
Thanks to the campaigning of her parents, Tanya and Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, a food safety law known as “Natasha’s Law” was introduced in October 2021 to compel all food made on premises to have full ingredient and allergen labelling.
The couple said they were “devastated” by Hannah’s death and had been providing support to her family over the last year.
In a statement to the Daily Mail, they said: “This is a complex case, involving a number of different parties, so it is vital that the circumstances surrounding Hannah’s death are fully investigated at the inquest next week.
“The death of yet another child with food allergy underlines the severity of this serious medical condition, and the steps we all need to take – individuals, companies and the government – to keep people with food allergies safe.”
The Ednan-Laperouse family have founded the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, which campaigns on the issue and has funded a clinical trial to investigate potential treatments for children suffering from severe allergies.
Approximately 10 people die each year in England and Wales as a result of allergies, according to Allergy UK, and the condition costs the NHS about £1bn a year. Between 2% and 3% of children living in the developed world suffer from an allergy to cow’s milk, making it the most common paediatric allergy, the charity says.
Hannah’s family released a photograph of the schoolgirl, believed to have been taken on her 13th birthday. In it, the bespectacled teenager, wearing a pink sash and badge, holds helium balloons while smiling at the camera.
