AN 18-year-old Exeter University student tragically died on her mum’s shoulder after having a horror allergic reaction.
Lily King had been on holiday to celebrate top grades in her first year of University but had began to feel ill after eating chicken and chips.
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Lily and her mum Aicha, 56, were coming to the end of their weeks’ long stay in Rabat, Morocco, in June and had decided to go out for dinner on their final night.
The pair had eaten at the nearby restaurant before and were confident Lily wouldn’t be served any food she was allergic to.
Upon arrival, Aicha, who is Moroccan and speaks Arabic, clearly told staff about her daughter’s allergies.
She explicitly said they should avoid cooking anything containing dairy, fish, shellfish, sesame, and nuts.
Lily’s father, Michael King, 73, told the Mail his wife was very clear about what their daughter “could and could not eat”.
But, in a scene that is every parents worst nightmare, within just minutes of food being served the teenager started struggling to breathe.
Lily rushed outside to throw up and tried to use her epi-pen, which she always kept with her, according to her father.
But, as panic ensured, restaurant staff refused to let her mother leave without paying the bill, wasting crucial seconds.
He said: “They delayed her from leaving the restaurant by a few minutes, which could have actually saved Lily’s life.”
Aicha explained through tears how she requested a simple meal of grilled chicken and chips not mixed in oil for Lily.
The waiter reportedly brought out a meal of chicken, vegetables with chips and a sauce on the side.
The heartbroken mum said in the restaurant’s dim lighting the vegetables resembled prawns so she instantly told the waiter to remove the meal.
“I explained to him [the waiter] in Arabic three times ‘Please be careful, she is very, very allergic’,” she said.
But the waiter assured her the “prawns” were just carrots cooked in nothing but olive oil, and there was nothing to be concerned about on Lily’s plate.
Within minutes of eating a carrot Lily began to react to the food, complaining of an itchy throat which soon progressed into nausea.
She told her mum about her symptoms and she gave her a Piriton and told her to use the toilet.
What is anaphylactic shock?
Anaphylactic shock is a severe and potentially fatal reaction to a trigger such as an allergy.
It normally comes on suddenly, and gets worse very quickly.
Symptoms include:
- Feeling lightheaded, dizzy or faint
- Fast or shallow breathing
- Wheezing
- A fast heartbeat
- Clammy skin
- Confusion and anxiety
- Collapsing or losing consciousness
A sufferer may also display symptoms of allergies, such as an itchy raised rash (hives), feeling or being sick, swelling or stomach pain.
But, when Lily came back, she claimed she couldn’t breathe.
Aicha told the Mail: “I started calling the ambulance and we went outside, so she can try to breathe.
“We [used] the Epi Pen. But I left my bag inside the restaurant, and it had my passport and everything in it, I can’t leave it, and I went [inside] to get it back.
“I told the restaurant, ‘my daughter [is] dying outside’. He said to me, to pay the bill before you’re leaving’.”
Aicha said after spending precious minutes settling the bill she went outside the restaurant to help her daughter who had now used her second Epi-Pen, to no avail.
Tearfully she said: “I’m screaming, there are security guards outside the door, but no one is helping me, nothing.”
With the ambulance nowhere to be seen Aicha felt she had no choice but to drive her daughter to the hospital.
But, tragically, in the 30 minutes it took to get there, Lily had already suffered a heart attack.
She then suffered from a catatonic fit, which rendered her brain dead, and died on her mother’s shoulder.
“She told me ‘I love you, goodbye’ and then passed away,” her heartbroken mother added.
Doctors kept Lily on life support for three days, but with no brain activity they were forced to pull the plug and let her die.
Medical staff spend little time with the Kings throughout the horror ordeal.
When asked what could have caused her death, they explained the situation in the restaurant.
Yet despite this, her cause of death was simply listed as “heart attack” on the death certificate and now the Kings fear they will “never know” how or why Lily’s allergies were flouted by the restaurant.
“There’s no other cause I can imagine that could have caused her to stop breathing,” Lily’s dad said.
Lily passed away on June 23 and had two autopsies, one in Morocco and another in England.
Her body was then released to her parents and she was buried in Beaconsfield on July 10.
Paying tribute to their beloved daughter, Mr King said: “Lily was loved by many, many friends.
“We had 60 or 70 of her friends and colleagues at the funeral, and they all signed a book of condolences, and they said the most marvellous things about her; how she was a shining light and made everybody laugh, and how she helped them with their problems.
“She was a very caring girl and very intelligent.
“With all her problems, she still managed to get to grammar school and get three A-Levels with grades for Exeter University to study Economics.
“She just got her results for her first-year exams, and she got a first – that was the day before she had this anaphylactic shock.”
Michael said police in Morocco launched an investigation into the restaurant, but the family haven’t been updated on the progress of the case.
He added: “It was taken out of the police’s hands and it got given to the prosecutor.
“We were told we would be notified about the next steps.
“We want to know what’s going on, we want to know whether it’s going to be brushed under the carpet or whether they’re going to do something about it.”
The Kings have set up a Just Giving page in memory of Lily and to raise money for other allergy sufferers.
The description section of the page reads: “Allergies dominated Lily’s life, and impeded on her ability to live life to the fullest without the fear of something happening.”
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