August 15, 2024
The victim’s mother said she informed the barista of her daughter’s allergies before ordering the drink.
Hannah Jacobs, a 13-year-old with severe allergies to dairy, fish, and eggs, died within hours of drinking a hot chocolate beverage from the Costa Coffee shop in London.
Abimbola Duyile, the victim’s mother, told an East London Coroner’s Court that she told the staff about her daughter’s severe allergy to dairy products and requested that they clean the equipment to avoid cross-contamination. Duyile said she was being “extra picky” because of the severity of her daughter’s allergies.
“I made sure the staff were aware that this was not a joke,” the mother said, according to The Telegraph.
Costa’s policy states that when customers disclose their dietary restrictions, workers should show them a book that includes ingredients and details about how the drink is made. Urmi Akter, the worker who took the order, said she did not show the book to Duyile.
“I did not show the mother the book as she told me washing the jug was fine. I thought she, as the mother, would know more about [it]”, Akter said, according to BBC News.
Reports show that Akter was told she did not have to answer questions if she felt they would incriminate her. As she testified, she had a Bengali interpreter with her. She declined to answer whether she was trained in her native language or if she received refresher courses. When asked if she knew what an allergen was, Akter declined to answer.
Akter claims that the mother ordered one extra hot and one normal hot chocolate and didn’t ask for soy milk. She only asked that the milk jug be cleaned between making drinks.
Forensic analysis of the coffee cups found no traces of soy milk but “’substantial levels” of milk proteins.
After purchasing the drinks, the mother and daughter visited a nearby dentist’s office. The 13-year-old took a sip of the drink and had an immediate allergic reaction.
Hannah then went to a pharmacy and received a 150mcg adrenaline Auto-Injector epi pen—a dosage recommended for children aged six and under. Hannah’s doctor said it was hard to predict if she would have survived if she had been given the recommended dosage of 300 mcg.
“150mcg was certainly too small a dose to be given,” he told the court, according to The Herald.