Mother of girl who died drinking Costa hot chocolate warned staff about her allergy before

Abimbola Duyile was ‘extra picky to point of sounding crazy’ with baristas over daughter’s severe dairy allergy, inquest hears

The mother of a 13-year-old girl who died after taking a single sip of a hot chocolate from Costa Coffee had warned staff about her daughter’s severe dairy allergy, an inquest has heard.
Hannah Jacobs, from Barking, east London, collapsed within half an hour of taking the drink in February last year and died hours later.
Abimbola Duyile, her mother, told East London coroner’s court she ordered two takeaway soya hot chocolates before taking Hannah to a dental appointment.
Ms Duyile said she told staff of her daughter’s severe allergies to cow’s milk and asked them to thoroughly clean equipment.
She said that Hannah “abruptly got up and went to the toilet and shouted ‘that was not soya milk’. 
She said Hannah’s reaction “happened quickly” and she was coughing up phlegm.
Ms Duyile then rushed Hannah, who was complaining of chest pains, to a nearby chemist as her “lips and mouth were very swollen and she was itchy”.
In a statement, Ms Duyile said her “initial response was of anger to the Costa Coffee staff – it gave way to terror”.
Ms Duyile told the court that she had been careful about checking with the staff before they prepared the drinks, saying: “I made sure that the staff were aware that this was not a joke.”
Ms Duyile said she was being “extra picky” and so specific about the order that she “might sound like a crazy mum” but her attitude was that she needed “to be straight with the staff”.
She added that, at that point, “Hannah was busy telling me off for being so picky”.
Of the reaction of the staff behind the counter to her request, Ms Duyile told the court: “I feel that she did not understand what I was saying, which is why I leaned forwards so that she could hear what I was saying.”
Hannah collapsed in the chemist and the pharmacist gave her an EpiPen injection in her leg. Attempts to resuscitate her were started and a customer called an ambulance. Paramedics soon arrived and continued resuscitation efforts.
Hannah was rushed to hospital where she was declared dead by 1pm, according to her family’s lawyers.
Ms Duyile said Hannah had suffered with extremely severe allergies since being diagnosed as a toddler, which led to her avoiding meat, eggs, fish and wheat following previous mild allergic reactions and tests.
She added that her daughter rarely ate out other than at restaurants they trusted with her serious allergies.
The court also heard that she wasn’t allowed to take an EpiPen to school with her, and that the dentist she visited may have had an EpiPen on site, though one was not offered during Hannah’s reaction.
In a statement read to the court, Ms Duyile added: “Hannah loved life. She was caring, affectionate, funny, outspoken and energetic. She was 13 when she died – an age in which we all change so quickly. I have never known the adult Hannah.
“Hannah had a strong sense of right and wrong. I always said she would have been a great lawyer. She had never suffered a serious allergic reaction that required her to go to hospital. Hannah understood her allergies were life threatening.
“I will always remember her as a happy child so full of happiness and promise. I will never know the woman that Hannah would have eventually become.”