Inquest told dying girl begged: ‘Daddy, help me, I can’t breathe’
A teenage girl who died after suffering a severe allergic reaction to a Pret a Manger baguette said “Daddy, help me” as she struggled for breath, an inquest has heard.
Natasha Ednan-laperouse, 15, collapsed on a British Airways flight from London to Nice on 17 July, 2016. She had been travelling with her father and best friend, and stopped to get a baguette as they passed through Heathrow Airport’s terminal five.
Unknown to the group, the sandwich dough contained sesame seeds, which was not mentioned on its packaging, according to a statement from her father, Nadim Ednanlaperouse, read on the first day of her inquest at West London Coroner’s Court.
Natasha was severely allergic to the ingredient, and suffered a cardiac arrest despite two epipens (which contain adrenaline to help open the airways) being applied. She was declared dead the same day at a Nice hospital.
The family’s lawyer, Jeremy Hyam QC, became emotional as he read Mr Ednan-laperouse’s statement to the inquest yesterday.
Natasha at first felt her throat growing itchy and found red hives developing on her midriff, the inquest heard. She was rushed to the cabin’s toilets, where her father applied an epipen. In the statement he said: “We waited a couple of minutes to see how she reacted. She said she couldn’t breathe properly and it was getting worse and urged me to get the second epipen right away.”
He applied it, but it failed to relieve the symptoms. “Natasha said that she still couldn’t breathe and desperately looked at me, she said, ‘Daddy, help me, I can’t breathe’.”
She soon lost consciousness. Cabin staff were aided by a junior doctor who was on board in applying CPR.
As hope began to fade that Natasha would survive in hospital, her father put a phone to her ear so her mother and brother could say goodbye.
In court yesterday, her mother, Tanya, could be seen wiping her eyes as she listened to the statement.
“The pain and agony of the call was beyond anything I have known,” the statement said of the moment Mr Ednanlaperouse broke the news to Natasha’s mother.
He then called his own mother and asked her to visit a branch of Pret a Manger in west London to examine the sandwich. Finding nothing on the label or on the shelf, his mother made inquiries at the counter and was handed a folder of information.
“My mother looked down the list and found the baguette dough had sesame seed inside it,” the statement said.
The inquest continues.