Mum fought in vain to save allergy girl dying from nuts in takeaway
‘There wouldn’t be anything in it’
A MOTHER tried desperately to save her teenage daughter when she suffered a fatal asthma attack triggered by a takeaway meal contaminated with peanuts, a court was told.
Megan Lee’s lips turned blue, she stopped breathing and her heart stopped following the meal, Manchester Crown Court heard.
The 15-year-old, who had what was thought to be a mild allergy to peanuts, suffered irreversible brain damage and her life support was turned off two days later.
Mohammed Abdul Kuddus, 40, owner of the Royal Spice Indian restaurant in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, and Harun Rashid, 38, its manager, deny manslaughter by gross negligence. Megan ate the takeaway at the home of a female friend on December 30, 2016, while they were revising for their mock GCSEs.
But as she tucked in to the seekh kebab, onion bhaji and peshwari naan – none of which were expected to contain peanuts – she developed a rash on her cheek and immediately stopped. Her friend’s mother gave her the allergy relief medication Piriton, which had controlled any reaction in the past. Megan’s mild allergy diagnosis that she’d had since aged eight meant she had not been prescribed an Epipen used to relieve severe reactions.
However, within an hour of being collected by her mother, Gemma Lee, she began to suffer a fatal reaction. Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, told jurors: ‘Her mum heard Megan call out. She found Megan struggling for breath. Her lips were swollen and had turned blue. Megan’s condition was deteriorating rapidly. She stopped breathing, her heart stopped. Mrs Lee tried desperately to revive her daughter.’
At hospital, Megan was found to have irreversible brain damage and ‘ there was nothing more that could be done for her’. The teenager, of Oswaldtwistle, was pronounced dead at 11.35am on January 1 last year.
Jurors were told the girls ordered a takeaway from Royal Spice via the Just Eat website and that it did not list ingredients but simply had the message: ‘Think allergy.’ Mr Wright said Megan’s friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, asked her about her allergy but she replied ‘there wouldn’t be anything in it’ before she added: ‘It’ll be fine, it’s not that bad.’
Nevertheless, the friend included the words ‘nuts’ and ‘prawns’ in a comments box on the website, the court was told.
Mr Wright said: ‘The entry could have been more specific but we say the input of the entry would have been obvious. In ordering dishes which do not ordinarily contain either ingredient, it was designed to alert staff at the takeaway to the risks such foodstuffs cause.’
Jurors were told that in the days after Megan’s death, police and environmental health officers visited Royal Spice. Staff were asked to cook the same food Megan and her friend ordered – all were found to be contaminated with peanuts.
The restaurant, which was found to be dirty and with mouse droppings present, was closed down.
Mr Wright said Rashid – who the court heard owned Royal Spice before selling it to Kuddus – made no comment when interviewed. He later claimed to be just a delivery driver. Kuddus answered most questions with ‘no comment’. At one point, however, he said: ‘I’m guilty for the girl dying, I have a daughter of 13.’
The trial continues.