An intelligent five-year-old boy who was “thriving” at school “most probably” drank from his own cup before dying from an allergic reaction to cow’s milk, a jury inquest has concluded.
An eight-day inquest was held at Peterbrough town hall, with jurors concluding that five-year-old Benedict Blyth had died from an “accidental exposure to an allergen, cow’s milk protein, causing fatal anaphylaxis” – with his mother blaming a “cascade of failures” for her loss.
The reception pupil went to Barnack Primary School in Stamford, Lincolnshire and had vomited twice before going into cardiac arrest.
He later died in hospital from food-induced anaphylaxis on December 1, 2021.
Benedict joined high-IQ society Mensa at the age of four and had asthma and several allergies to cow’s milk, eggs and some nuts.
A foreman for the jury said the “probable source of the allergen”, which had caused the fatal anaphylaxis, was the “ingestion of cow’s milk protein, most probably from his own receptacle during break time”..
The inquest was told that Benedict was kept home from school the day before the incident due to him being ill, and he had vomited the previous night.
He did, however, return to school the next day on December 1.
The boy died on December 1, 2021
PA
Benedict’s parents had provided oat milk to the school, which was stored in a separate fridge in the staff room along with a carton of lactose-free milk for another child.
The boy couldn’t drink lactose-free milk as it contained dairy allergens.
The inquest heard that the school didn’t follow its usual procedure of giving Benedict his milk on the day he died, as it was poured into his cup in the staff room instead of being poured in the classroom and handed “directly to him”.
It also heard there was a delay in staff administering the boy adrenaline.
Benedict’s mother, Helen Blythe, spoke outside the town hall
PA
Dr Shuaib Nasser, a consultant in asthma and allergy, found a “small amount” of cow’s milk most likely caused the fatal reaction.
The jury found Benedict’s death was “probably caused” by the delayed administration of his adrenaline, along with opportunities for cross-contamination or the mixing-up of milk, and that his allergy plan was not handed to the teaching staff.
The boy was said to have been “thriving” during the three months he spent at the school and had an obsession with maths.
He was even said to have whispered times tables under his breath before he fell asleep.
Benedict’s mother, Helen Blythe, spoke outside the town hall following the inquest, saying her son “died in a place where he should have been safe – his school”.
“(His) death was preventable and was caused by a cascade of failures — individual, institutional, and systemic,” she said.
Following her son’s death, Blythe established the Benedict Blythe Foundation in a bid to ensure all children had a safe place to learn.
She told media “there were critical failings” right from the beginning.
“The investigation at the time was inadequate as the evidence needed to establish how and why he died was never obtained,” she said.
“Because of that, precious time was lost — and with it, opportunities to understand what happened to our son.”
Blythe added that “no more children” should die at school due to an allergy.
She demanded change and called on the government to “protect our children with Benedict’s law”.
Blythe wants schools to have mandatory allergy policies, including understanding and how to manage them, while being able to identify signs of a reaction, and providing a swift reaction in the case of an emergency.
She ultimately wanted schools to have a spare adrenaline allergy pen.
