A nationwide shortage of life-saving EpiPens has been linked to the death of a schoolgirl with a severe dairy allergy who died after drinking a sip of Costa Coffee hot chocolate.
Earlier this month, a coroner concluded that 13-year-old Hannah Jacobs died because staff at the coffee chain failed to follow allergy safety procedures.
Hannah asked for soya milk in her drink, but real milk was used instead. Her mother, Abimbola Duyile, accused Costa Coffee of treating allergy training as a “box-ticking exercise”, leading to the death of her “lively, attentive and loving” daughter.
However, The Mail on Sunday has learned that Hannah’s life could have been saved if it weren’t for an alleged dangerous shortage of prescription drugs in the UK.
An inquest into her death in February 2023 revealed that a pharmacist who helped her during the fatal allergic reaction said the correct dose of an emergency medication was “out of stock”.
Undated family photograph issued by solicitors Leigh Day of Hannah Jacobs, 13, from Barking, east London, who had a severe allergy to dairy products.
Hannah’s mother Abimbola Duyile holds a photograph of her daughter as a barrister outside East London Coroner’s Court following the conclusion of the inquest into 13-year-old Hannah Jacobs, who died after a suspected anaphylactic reaction to a hot chocolate drink bought at a branch of Costa Coffee in Barking.
Instead, Santokh Kahlon, of Daynight Pharmacy in Barking, Essex, said he used the “only EpiPen available”, which contained 150mg of adrenaline – a third of the amount needed for a teenager. He said his staff desperately searched for another dose but were unable to find one due to a “lack of supply” across the UK.
He began performing CPR on the London teenager while a customer called an ambulance. However, by the time Hannah was taken to hospital it was too late. She died later that afternoon.
Experts warn that drug shortages could lead to more deaths. Research shows that over the past year, more than half of Britons have struggled to get their prescriptions filled and around one in 12 people have been unable to access essential medicines such as hormone replacement therapy, antibiotics and inhalers.
Over the past six months, the Ministry of Health has brought to light dozens of cases of patients affected by this shortage, but the government has yet to establish plans to address the problem.
“What will it take for the government to step in and do something?” asks Dr Leyla Hann-beck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacy Association. “If the correct dose of EpiPen had been available, this child may have been saved.”
“Something is seriously wrong in our country when there is a shortage of life-saving medicines. Patients are living on the edge, hoping to receive their medicines on time. It is unacceptable.”
Although the shortages have been largely due to increased global demand and manufacturing problems, experts say the Government has the power to ease the crisis. The Department of Health has therefore launched its End The Drug Shortage Nightmare campaign. This newspaper is calling on the Government to give pharmacists the power to make substitutions for patients when drugs run out and to require manufacturers to give advance notice of known shortages or face fines.
We also believe there should be a database so patients can check which pharmacies have medicines in stock, and we argue that all NHS patients should be allowed to use well-stocked hospital pharmacies to obtain critical medicines.
The inquest into Hannah’s death heard how her mother warned staff at Costa Coffee in Station Parade Barking about her daughter’s severe dairy allergy when she ordered two hot chocolates.
A view of the Costa Coffee branch on Station Parade in Barking, east London, where Abimbola Duyile bought his 13-year-old daughter, Hannah Jacobs, a hot chocolate drink to which she suffered a severe reaction and died in hospital.
Ms Duyile said she apologised to the baristas for “being a nuisance” and requested the jug and frother be cleaned as well, East London Coroner’s Court was told.
Hannah and her mother were at a nearby dental office when she took a sip of the drink and “immediately” began vomiting and having difficulty swallowing. They left after 10 minutes due to Hannah’s symptoms and sought help at the pharmacy across the street.
Ms Duyile asked for a dose of the antihistamine gel cetirizine, which she said used to ease her daughter’s symptoms but did not work this time.
Mr. Kahlon, the pharmacist, reached for an EpiPen, which contains a dose of adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, a drug that can treat anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening allergic complication.
Neither Hannah nor her mother were carrying an EpiPen at the time, even though that was the advice given to patients with severe allergies.
According to official guidelines, 10 mg per kg of body weight is needed. Hannah, who was unconscious when she was given the injection, weighed 47 kg (104 lb).
This meant that the 150 mg dose he received was not enough to counteract the reaction.
According to NHS data, there has been a shortage of EpiPens since 2018. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson denied that there had been a shortage of EpiPens at the time of Hannah’s death, but added: “We have been in discussions with the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation about improving support for people with allergies and ministers are carefully considering the concerns raised by the coroner.”