A girl has reportedly passed away after being served a hot chocolate drink from a popular coffee shop brand.
Now, we all enjoy getting ourselves a little sweet treat when we’re out but for some people with allergies, it can be extremely difficult to do that without the added fear of human error or cross-contamination.
In the case of 13-year-old Hannah Jacobs, getting a drink from the popular coffee branch Costa turned out to be one of the last things she ever did.
Hannah, who is from London, tragically passed away last year after a suspected anaphylactic reaction to a hot chocolate drink her mother had purchased from a local branch before heading to a dentist appointment.
As per the Daily Mail, the teenager suffered from multiple allergies such as dairy, egg, fish, and wheat, which she was vigilantly aware of throughout her life.
But during a visit to Costa last year, things took a turn for the worst.
According to legal firm Leigh Day, Hannah’s mom allegedly notified the barista of her daughter’s allergies, stressing the importance of making sure her drink was suitable for her condition.
However, when Hannah took a sip of the drink in the waiting room of the dental practice, she immediately noticed something was off, notifying her mom that she didn’t think the milk used was soy.
The pair were forced to leave the dentist and rush to a nearby pharmacy for help. Staff at the local establishment gave Hannah an EpiPen in the hopes that it would calm the reaction down, but her body went into anaphylactic shock.
During anaphylaxis, the immune system releases a flood of chemicals that can cause the body to go into shock resulting in extremely low blood pressure as well as the narrowing of airways.
This makes it difficult for the person to breathe and within seconds, their heart rate increases but also gets weaker as the airways continue to restrict oxygen to the organs.
Other symptoms involve an itchy skin rash as well as nausea and vomiting.
Hannah was given a EpiPen but her body could not fight off the reaction. Credit: Jaromir/Getty
An ambulance arrived at the scene, though they could not resuscitate the teen and she was pronounced dead early that same afternoon.
The inquest will be held at East London Coroner’s Court on Monday, as per a recent report published by the Daily Mail.
The trial is expected to last approximately a week and will go into depth examining how Hannah died with the help of 11 witnesses and experts.
It has been reported that approximately 500 to 1000 people in the United States die from an allergic reaction every year, though those numbers are steadily increasing.