Milk allergy death- should the book be thrown at the staff involved?

[mids2019]

....or if you are minimum wage staff member working in a stressed environment without English as a first language there should be leniency. Doctors are paid for life and death decisions but are Costa staff?

That's not what happened though. The barista put cow's milk in the drink, instead of soya milk.

Should the book be thrown at the person who made the drink? Absolutely fucking not. When I worked in a coffee shop I was 16 and made £5.75 an hour a barista is not a job where you should have that level of responsibility.

Should the book be thrown at Costa? Abso-fucking-lutely.

Employing someone whos level of english speaking is such they require a interpreter at their trial, and not making any adjustments to make sure instances like this are unable to happen, is an absolute abomination.

There is an argument that says with allergies that serious you dont ever risk anyone making your food, but again I say fuck that. You need to expect the UKs largest coffee chain to be able to make a soy milk hot chocolate without an issue. The reason they couldn't here is not the employees fault, but their employers.

Costa have failed everyone here, and I wont be setting foot in one again.

Whenever ive asked for soya milk in Costa. They have always marked my lid with a big S.

If you have a serious dairy allergy, it’s madness to go to a place where milk is a primary ingredient of most of what they sell.

It’s like going to a omelette place when you’re allergic to eggs.

Everyone who doesn’t have English as a first language is offered one, you can even be forced to have one, it doesn’t mean the persons level of English is poor.

Any job with food comes with a high level of responsibility, whether that be general food safety or following the companies allergy guidance, some people don’t want that responsibilty which is fine, that just means jobs in food aren’t for them.

The Government offers free allergen training online.

There's a comment somewhere about using google translate to complete it.

This is a horrific story, an unnecessary death that really should have been avoided.

Again.
Non native English speakers may want interpreter even if their English is good.
There is areasonnot everyone fluent can be interprer at courts, police or NHS and people have to do exams about lingo...

The fact that the barista used an interpreter in court has no relation to her proficiency in English.

I would 100% have an interpreter too, because at the end of the day English is not my native language.

but what is to happen to the barista?
i imagine she has left already, she would be blamed for not following recognised procedure

This- if their grasp of English is insufficient they can’t understand the mum saying about the allergy! I have no issue with orders from elsewhere but they really must understand sufficient language for the job. Costa need the book throwing at them for procedures to be water tight- too many mistakes like this happen, not all result in death

This is what I read about the epipen and the dentist.
It was also heard that she was not allowed to take an EpiPen to school with her, and that the dentist she visited may have had an EpiPen on site, although one was not offered during Hannah's reaction.

I can't see where it is mentioned that the mum refused one?

But the presence of cross contamination - particularly milk in a coffee shop - should have been the point at which this story stopped. Life threatening allergy. Allergen all over the place. No way to ensure the risk is totally gone. Don’t buy the product. Whether the product given was what the wanted or not, the risk of milk cross contamination in a costa hot chocolate is off the scale.
Regardless of the ins and outs, it’s a tragic error somewhere along the line.

Yeah same here and when giving us the drink they have again clarified whats in it and asked us again to confirm the allergy.

I suspect there are things that will come out on this one. If my child’s allergy was that bad I wouldn’t be going to Costa. I wouldn’t refuse an epi pen.

I’m allergic to cows milk, Costa hot choc with soya is ok for me. If I was anaphylactic I’d avoid it though they don’t have a separate machine for frothing soya milk.

This. It doesn't matter what you're being paid, if you work in an environment serving food, you must have a good understanding of the allergen procedures and why it is so important that these are followed correctly. Anyway, plenty of nurses and junior doctors in the hospital won't be paid much (if any) more than costa staff per hour!

I sincerely hope the mother never comes across comments blaming her. She took her daughter (who did not have a known anaphylactic reaction) for a drink she had previously had before without issue in a chain that should be well able to appropriately manage a common allergen.

I'm reluctant to criticise a grieving mother who will be going through hell. It is plain to see from the facts given in news coverage that there's plenty the mother should have done differently. It's very easy to criticise from afar.

I can only assume it was their first time experiencing a reaction of such severity, hence why she rejected the epipen at the dentist - I'm sure that will haunt her for the rest of her days, so I don't think there's any need for people to twist the knife online about it.

I know a woman who had eaten peanuts all her life, but one day, in her 40s, without warning went into full blown severe anaphylactic shock after eating a snickers bar and has been allergic to peanuts ever since- luckily she was at work so had help to hand. Who knows what could have happened if she was alone? I'm sure plenty of people would be assuming she's an idiot who didn't realise there were peanuts in snickers or whatever else.

I also know people with allergies who are concerning lax about it, but it's very easy to see how a lifetime of getting lucky will make you feel like nothing can ever go wrong.

All of my dc have dairy allergies. When I had my youngest she was in nicu and needed formula. We requested donor breastmilk or dairy free baby formula. The NURSE started laughing at us !!! Said ‘it’s BABY milk ! Look aptamil SMA cow and gate ALL baby milks not dairy cows milk !!’ We were shocked a nurse didn’t even understand. I’m really not surprised that a coffee shop worker with poor English didn’t understand either , people need to be able to understand and be understood .

Surely this comes under ‘do you want to be in the right, or do you want to be alive?’. Not a chance I’d be taking.

Employing someone whos level of english speaking is such they require a interpreter at their trial

Nobody is on trial. This is an inquest - a fact finding inquiry held in public.

I’m very dairy intolerant (thankfully not allergic) and after the second time of being given cow’s milk in a drink after asking for soya (luckily I can taste the difference easily), I now double check every single time they hand me the drink: “This has definitely been made with soya, yes?” 99% of the time it has been - but there is still sometimes the, “oh! Sorry, we’ll redo it now.” This is across multiple different chains.

Whatever happened that day, it’s horribly tragic.

Like the parents of the tragic death of the girl after eating a Pret they do need to accept that they have a serious condition and need to take responsibility for that, understanding the risks & sticking to packaged and labelled food & drink.

There often is a language barrier with minimum wage staff & some may have disabilities etc& if the mum was struggling to get across the order then she really should have taken responsibility herself & ordered something she knew to be safe - a packaged juice or soft drink with full ingredients.

What strikes me as bizarre in this situation is the fact that the family were not carrying an epi-pen. This in itself is incredibly irresponsible with a known severe allergy. A busy coffee shop with huge potential for milk cross contamination is also the last place that you’d choose to bring a child with a milk allergy.

Costa certainly need to review their staff training policies but two wrongs do not make a right.

Almost always for high st versions, I'd have thought!

I also would have thought that if a child had a potentially life-threatening allergy then you'd check the spec of the drink (esp something like hot chocolate) before ordering and not rely on staff to offer the book.

Dairy is added to so much commercially-produced food that you wouldn't expect including Thai curry ready meals, katsu curry, etc.

She should have had her epi-pen on her at all times, and certainly in school. Something seems to have gone tragically wrong with her allergy plan and school communication for a start.