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Pret inquest: Flight crew did not use defibrillator on dying girl | Pret inquest: Flight crew did not use defibrillator on dying girl |
(35 minutes later) | |
Flight attendants did not use a defibrillator on a girl who suffered a fatal allergic reaction because they chose to cover the plane's emergency exits, an inquest has heard. | |
Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, went into cardiac arrest on a flight after eating a baguette from Pret A Manger in 2016. | |
Staff on the British Airways plane said it was too dangerous to fetch the defibrillator during landing. | |
Natasha had suffered an allergic reaction to the sesame in the baguette. | |
The teenager, from Fulham, west London, went into cardiac arrest minutes before her flight from Heathrow to Nice landed on 17 July 2016. | |
'Doors take priority' | |
BA head of cabin crew John Harris said it was a formal requirement of his training to ensure that cabin crew were in position on landing so they could get passengers off the aircraft in case of an emergency. | |
He said: "Without sounding harsh, the coverage of doors takes priority. | |
"There were only five cabin crew on that particular flight and the aircraft had four sets of doors, totalling eight doors, and one cabin crew member was out of action. | |
"So we literally had the minimum number of crew to cover those doors." | |
BA flight attendant Mario Ballestri told the inquest it would have been too dangerous to get the defibrillator from the other end of the aircraft. | |
Mr Ballestri had helped a junior doctor as he tried to resuscitate Natasha, West London Coroner's Court heard. | |
A defibrillator was used on her after landing, when paramedics arrived, but she died in hospital in Nice later. | |
Earlier the inquest heard Pret A Manger did not have to list ingredients on the baguette, which Natasha bought at Heathrow Terminal 5 shortly before take-off. | |
Coroner Dr Sean Cummings raised concerns over rules which do not require some food companies to provide ingredient labelling. | |
He said such rules could be used by large retailers "to get around regulations". | He said such rules could be used by large retailers "to get around regulations". |
Natasha had pleaded with her father to help her as she struggled to breathe following a reaction to the sesame "hidden" in the baguette dough, the court heard. | |
The inquest is expected to last until Friday. | The inquest is expected to last until Friday. |