The mother of a 13-year-old girl with a severe dairy allergy who died after drinking a Costa Coffee hot chocolate in east London has revealed she still lies awake wondering if she could have prevented her daughter’s death.
Hannah Jacob’s died within hours of sipping the drink which contained dairy milk in Barking on February 8 last year.
Her mother Abimbola Duyile has called on the Government to teach everyone to use an EpiPen to help save lives in similar situations.
In an interview with the BBC she revealed her world had been "turned upside down" by Hannah’s death.
The mother said: "Most nights I stay awake thinking maybe there is something I could have done differently... maybe carrying an EpiPen with me.”
She also told the BBC: “Every restaurant needs to know about allergies. It’s like a death threat. It’s very severe. It’s very very hard at the moment…
“Any little thing when you have an allergy, you don’t know what is going to happen next.”
She continued: “We must call it a disease at this point because kids are dying from this. I really don’t think any parent should be losing [their] child this way.”
An inquest earlier this month found Hannah died after drinking the hot chocolate following a "failure to follow the processes in place to discuss allergies".
Assistant coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said there had been a "failure of communication" between the coffee shop staff and Ms Duyile.
Dr Radcliffe ruled: "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 or her mother were carrying an epi-pen that had been prescribed".
A post-mortem examination found Hannah died after suffering from a hypersensitive anaphylactic reaction triggered by an ingredient in her hot chocolate that caused an allergic response.
In a statement, Ms Duyile, accused the food industry of treating allergy training as a "tick box exercise".
She said: “Hannah was just entering adolescence and learning to be independent, taking ownership of her allergies when she was tragically taken from us. She had known from a young age what her allergies were and took them very seriously.
"I have always been extremely diligent in managing Hannah’s allergies and she had never suffered a serious allergic reaction prior to this incident.
"Hannah loved life. She was a vivacious, caring, affectionate, outspoken and energetic child with a strong sense of right and wrong. Hannah had everything to live for and was so full of life and promise.
She added: “Allowing people who serve food and drinks to retake an allergy training test 20 times is not acceptable.
“Treating allergy training as a tick box exercise is not acceptable... And the consequence is that my daughter is no longer here. My beautiful Hannah only had 13 years on this earth when she should have had many, many more.”
The inquest previously heard that, at the time of Hannah's death, allergen training for new Costa staff involved a series of online modules that could be accessed at home, and a quiz that trainees had to pass.
In a statement, a Costa Coffee spokesman told the BBC Hannah's death was a "tragedy and our heartfelt thoughts remain with her family and friends”.
“We have strict allergy training and procedures in place to help to minimise the risk to those customers who suffer from allergens, however, we agree with the coroner’s conclusion that our allergen process was not followed that day at our franchise partner store," he added.
Costa says it will continue to review staff training and is working alongside the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation - a charity raising awareness about allergies.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: "We have been in ongoing discussions with the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation about improving support for people with allergies and ministers will carefully consider their views and any recommendations made by the coroner following the tragic death of Hannah Jacobs.”
