Killed by a kebab
Dairy allergy girl, 15, dies after reaction to yoghurt
A SCHOOLGIRL with a severe dairy allergy died after eating a kebab while shopping with a friend, an inquest heard yesterday.
Chloe Gilbert, 15, collapsed in front of shoppers an hour after she ate the takeaway lunch. She was pronounced dead 30 minutes later.
The fatal reaction was triggered by yoghurt which had been included in Chloe’s meal of kebab meat, lettuce and chips with barbecue sauce.
She had been enjoying a shopping trip in Bath, Somerset, with a friend on March 5 when she suddenly started shaking outside a Boots shop.
Two shoppers laid her on a bench and one tried to administer her EpiPen, but by that point she had fallen deep into anaphylactic shock, Avon Coroner’s Court heard. Paramedics arrived and Chloe was taken to Royal United Hospital by air ambulance, where she was pronounced dead at 3.35pm.
She had eaten the lunch between 1.30pm and 2pm, her friend told the hearing.
Chloe lived in Melksham, Wiltshire, with her parents. They rushed to the hospital where they were informed by police that she had died. A post- mortem examination by Home Office pathologist Dr Deborah Cook confirmed that Chloe had suffered an anaphylactic reaction.
‘That anaphylactic reaction was to a dairy product within the kebab that Chloe had eaten and had eaten unwittingly,’ she said.
‘Chloe had a milk allergy from a very early age and did carry an EpiPen as well as inhalers for her asthma.’ The cause of Chloe’s death was anaphylaxis and aspiration of vomit due to ‘exposure to yoghurt with a known allergy to dairy products’, Dr Cook added.
After the inquest, Chloe’s parents said: ‘Thank you to all the services that tried to help Chloe that tragic day.
‘Also the shop workers nearby, the members of the public and
On a shopping trip with friends ‘Tried to look after those around her’
Chloe’s friend who did everything she could. Our dear Chloe, a true angel, is loved and so dearly missed by us, her brother, all her friends and family.’ Melksham Oak Community school paid tribute to the schoolgirl’s infectious smile and ‘lust for life’. The school said: ‘Chloe had a great sense of humour and was beautiful inside and out. She had time for people and genuinely tried to look after those around her. Chloe was also creative – she drew fantastic pictures, as if the colour and warmth she had inside needed to radiate outwards.
‘There has not been a single person, teacher or student that has not had anything but the most positive of things to say about this young woman.’