Inquest into teenage girl who died after suffering allergic reaction

Those around Millie Bristow were ‘never fully aware’ of how severe her nut allergy was.

After only eating a quarter of a chicken tikka masala, she became critically unwell.

Despite the best efforts of paramedics and health professionals, she died that same evening at Warrington Hospital.

An inquest into Miss Bristow’s took place at Warrington Coroner’s Court on Wednesday.

Here, it was heard that Miss Bristow had been asthmatic from a very young age and just a few weeks before her death, she had been diagnosed with bronchitis.

The coroner’s court was also told that the teenager had allergies to nuts, eggs, house dust mite, and cats.

But in a statement, her older sister Amy said that there were never any problems with eating nuts around Ms Bristow.

Amy also said that her sister would ‘never make a fuss’ or ‘make staff aware’ about her nut allergy if she was eating out, but that she would ‘always get the same thing’ and ‘stick to what she knew’.

The inquest heard that in the days leading up to Ms Bristow’s death, she was staying at her friend’s house in Padgate as they were attending the Neighbourhood Weekender festival together.

Before the festival, Miss Bristow had said she felt unwell with a bad chest, however she seemed ‘completely fine’ over the weekend.

On Monday, May 29, which was after the festival, Miss Bristow and her friend, who did not know about her allergies, spent the day drinking tea and chatting before they decided to order an Indian takeaway from an eatery in Warrington.

The court was told how Miss Bristow had never had an Indian takeaway before, but that she had tried some of her friend’s a few weeks earlier and liked it.

When ordering the food, the takeaway was not made aware of Miss Bristow’s nut allergy and no special dietary requirements were made, the inquest heard.

Miss Bristow, who lived in Liverpool, ordered lamb chops for starters and a chicken tikka masala for her main and the girls shared a naan bread.

In a statement from her friend, it was revealed that after eating just a quarter of her main meal, Miss Bristow started to feel unwell and at first thought she had indigestion.

She then said she felt itchy and asked if the curry had cashew nuts as she remembered an incident involving them when she was younger.

Miss Bristow now felt like her lips and throat were tingling and she soon began to quickly deteriorate.

She made a call to 111 and an ambulance was called. But as advised by the call handler,  her friend’s mum decided to take her to hospital herself.

While getting ready to leave for Warrington Hospital, Miss Bristow’s face and lips turned blue and she was struggling to breathe. She then began fitting and vomiting.

A number of other emergency calls were made and paramedics soon arrived at the house.

The inquest heard a statement from a paramedic who was first to arrive on the scene.

He said how he entered the property with basic life support equipment and a defibrillator but soon called for advanced life support equipment when he identified that Miss Bristow was having an anaphylaxis reaction.

The paramedic said that Miss Bristow was frantic and choking on vomit and that she was at ‘imminent risk of going into cardiac arrest’.

Her heart rate was rapidly decreasing and sadly despite the best efforts of the paramedic, Miss Bristow went into cardiac arrest.

Chest compressions then started and back-up, including a senior paramedic, a critical care paramedic, and an air ambulance, were called.

An extraction plan was developed and Miss Bristow, who had a rash over her body by this point, was rushed to Warrington Hospital.

She was described as ‘acutely unwell’ on her arrival and CPR was continued.

But after around 40 minutes, efforts proved ‘futile’ and at 8.32pm CPR stopped and Miss Bristow was tragically pronounced dead.

Following the incident, an environmental health officer from the council’s food hygiene team visited the takeaway to check records. It was found that everything was in order.

Concluding the evidence, senior coroner for Cheshire Jacqueline Devonish acknowledged the sadness of Miss Bristow’s death and offered her ‘deepest condolences’ to her family.

Ms Devonish said how Miss Bristow had managed to get through her life ‘with very few incidents’ surrounding her allergies.

She noted how Miss Bristow did not broadcast that she had allergies or that she could be allergic to anything, but said she was ‘very careful’ to avoid foods and seemed she had a ‘vague recollection’ of a nut allergy.

The court heard how Miss Bristow’s death was ‘accidental’ because she consumed the food ‘absolutely not expecting anything to happen’.

Her cause of death was determined as respiratory failure due to a anaphylaxis reaction and acute bronchitis.

For more information on allergies, visit: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/food-allergy/