A BRITISH teenager told her mum “I’m sorry” after collapsing in her arms from a severe allergic reaction on holiday.
Lily King, 18, from Buckinghamshire , tragically died after eating a carrot in a meal to celebrate top grades in her first year at Exeter University while on holiday in Morocco .
The student was diagnosed with severe allergies to fish and seafood, nuts, sesame, milk and eggs when she was two-and-a-half – and her mum Aicha had packed a whole suitcase of safe supplies.
While Lily’s childhood had been dominated her allergies – along with eczema and asthma – she hadn’t ever needed hospital treatment until five months prior to the holiday.
She had bought a burger at a music festival in Exeter and suffered anaphylaxis – the most extreme allergic reaction, where rapid swelling in the throat and tongue cause breathing difficulties and sometimes cardiac arrest.
Then, on the last night of their holiday last year, Lily discovered that she had received a first for her first-year exams and wanted to celebrate – so the pair decided to go out for a meal.
It was somewhere they had eaten before, including for Lily’s 18th, and they were confident that it would pass without hitch.
Upon arrival, Aicha, who is Moroccan and speaks Arabic, gave staff repeated clear instructions about her daughter’s allergies.
Lily herself even said in Arabic: “I don’t want to be killed,” Aicha told the Mail .
But when the food arrived, it came with vegetables and a sauce they hadn’t asked for.
Lily put a small piece of carrot into her mouth, saying: “Don’t be silly mum, it’s just a carrot,” but her tongue instantly felt itchy.
She took an antihistamine and went to the bathroom, then used her EpiPen and went outside for some air.
After just 15 minutes, Lily was struggling to breathe. She used her second EpiPen and Aicha called an ambulance.
Now desperate, the mum ran back into the restaurant to grab her bag of money and passports but, agonisingly, the waiter wasted vital minutes by insisting she paid the bill.
When she got outside again, Lily was gasping for air and slipping out of consciousness.
According to the Daily Mail , she collapsed into her mum’s arms and said: “You know Mum, I love you. I’m sorry. Goodbye.”
With the ambulance nowhere to be seen, Lily’s cousins bundled her into their car and rushed to the hospital – but she stopped breathing on the way.
Medics performed CPR but refused to begin further treatment until Lily’s mum had written a check – further stalling the process.
The desperately ill teen was eventually put on life support – but with no brain activity doctors were forced to switch it off three days later.
It was found that she had already suffered a heart attack and a catatonic fit, which rendered her brain dead, before being hooked up to the machine.
Reflecting on the terrible ordeal, Aicha said: “Neither the waiter nor any of the doctors spoke English.
“Without Arabic, it would have been impossible to make myself understood.
“It is my mother tongue and yet I still couldn’t get the care Lily needed.”
A JustGiving page set up to raise funds for Natasha Allergy Research Foundation has racked up nearly £9,000 in donations.
