Student died ‘after allergic reaction at restaurant’
TEENAGER ATE CHICKEN SOAKED IN BUTTERMILK, INQUEST TOLD
A TEENAGER who was severely allergic to dairy products died after being served chicken which had been marinated in buttermilk at a popular Manchester restaurant, an inquest heard.
Shahida Shahid, 18, from Worsley, Salford, collapsed within an hour of leaving Almost Famous in the Great Northern Warehouse in January, 2015, where she had enjoyed a meal with friends at the end of their first term at the University of Manchester.
The talented maths student was treated with her Epipen, which administers a burst of adrenaline to counter any allergic reaction, near the Printworks area of the city, but she suffered severe brain damage and died in hospital three days later.
As an inquest into her death opened at Manchester Crown Court, assistant coroner Sally Hatfield told a jury of six women and five men the chicken burger Shahida had ordered and consumed had been marinaded in buttermilk.
The teenager had twice before suffered severe reaction after mistakenly eating dairy products, it was heard.
But Shahida, a Manchester United season ticket holder, ate out regularly and was well capable of managing her allergies and alerting restaurant staff of her requirements, her family told the inquest jury.
Shahida’s older sister, Dr Sharma Shahid, a GP, told the jurors that Shadida had developed eczema and an allergy to milk from an early age, later developing other allergies to egg, fish and nuts.
She went on a dairy-free diet, although this didn’t stop her eating out regularly, the inquest was told.
When she went out for meals, her family would tell the waiter about her allergies and Shahida would do so too, said Dr Shahid.
Her family would ‘double check’ her food when it arrived.
Shahida would normally stick to chicken or meat as she knew this was safe, and she also she made a point of asking if any meal she had ordered contained any ‘un-named butter,’ Dr Shahid told the inquest.
Shahida’s older brother, business analyst Rasel Shahid, told the inquest Nando’s was her favourite venue where ‘she felt comfortable’
Mr Shahid said his sister had been in a ‘jovial mood’ at the family home in Worsley on the day she suffered her fatal reaction.
“She came down from a shower with a towel around wrapped around her head and she was joking and laughing in the kitchen. Then she went to the living room and she was with me watching TV, just discussing what happened that day,” said Mr Shahid.
“She told me she was going to Almost Famous, the restaurant. She hadn’t been before.”
Mr Shahid said he would have gone to the restaurant that night but for a prior engagement, the funeral of a family friend.
He added: “She had been out plenty of times with her friends. Actually we were saying perhaps she needed to calm it down in terms of her studying, but it was never in doubt – her studies – so we just let her go out.”
Asked by the Shahid family’s lawyer, Austin Welch, if there was any doubt about the way she was managing her condition, he said: “Not in the slightest.”
He added that his family were ‘big foodies’ and Shahida, who also has asthma, felt ‘so comfortable’ managing her condition.
He added: “She was cooking without milk and using soya instead, making her own salad and rice dishes. She was making her own food. She was perfectly capable of looking after herself in or outside.”
Proceeding