The mother of a five-year-old boy who died after he was accidentally exposed to the wrong milk at school is calling for a new law to keep other children with allergies safe.
Benedict Blythe, a reception pupil at Barnack Primary School in Stamford, Lincolnshire, suffered fatal anaphylaxis after he was accidentally exposed to cow’s milk protein, probably from his own cup during break time.
An inquest into his death found the school’s delay in giving him his EpiPen, a failure to share his allergy plan, and a failure to learn from a previous allergic reaction, all likely contributed to his death.
Benedict died in December 2021, and the family have now waited more than three years for answers, with the inquest concluding this week.
Benedict’s mother Helen is working to ensure no other children die at school from an allergy. Pic: Family handout
He had a number of allergies, including cow’s milk protein, eggs, nuts and kiwi fruit.
Benedict, who joined the high-IQ society Mensa at the age of four, loved school, his mother Helen told Sky News.
“He was ferociously intelligent,” she said. “He was doing Year Five maths when he had just started school.”
He was also “kind and considerate”, she said, describing how her son once spent his entire lunchtime helping a friend find a lost scooter.
“We walked into school one day and he noticed a child that looked a bit nervous, and said, I’ll take you in, took his hand and walked him into school.”
She continued: “That kind of calm, positive energy, that is always missing and we will never come across it again. It’s a really hard thing to have lost.”
Benedict and his sister. Pic: Family handout
During break time, Benedict was to be served oat milk, which was stored in the staff fridge with his name on. The usual process was to take this into the classroom and pour it into his cup, handing it to him directly.
But on the day of his death, his milk was poured in the staffroom and then taken into the classroom.
It is not clear how the cross-contamination or mix-up of milk could have happened, but the foreperson of the jury at the inquest said: “We deem the probable source of the allergen that caused the fatal anaphylaxis is the ingestion of cow’s milk protein, most probably from his own receptacle during break time.”
Benedict vomited twice and lost consciousness before his adrenaline pen was administered.
By the time he reached hospital, it was too late. Benedict was five years old when he died.
There is currently no specific legislation to protect children with allergies. Pic: Family handout
Helen said the school had been told vomiting was “always” the first sign of an allergic reaction, but the pen was given too late to be effective.
“The advice is, if in doubt, don’t delay,” she said.
“The worst that will happen with giving adrenaline is that they will feel a bit ropey, but the risk of delaying it… probably even a minute earlier could have had an impact.”
A previous reaction
This was the second time Benedict had an allergic reaction at school, having previously been sick while eating a pizza.
Benedict had an allergic reaction at school once before. Pic: Family handout
And while she was keen to stress she did not blame individual staff members, the inquest found no allergy plan was created by the school, and there was no specific allergy policy when he started school. Staff responsible were also not privy to key information about Benedict’s allergy.
“Benedict’s death was preventable and was caused by a cascade of failures – individual, institutional, and systemic,” Helen said, shortly after the inquest returned its verdict.
In a statement, Benedict’s former school said: “The only comment that Barnack Primary School wishes to make at this point in time, is to offer its sincere and heartfelt condolences to Benedict’s family at the tragic loss of Benedict.”
Benedict’s Law
There is currently no legislation that exists to protect children with allergies, and so Helen is working to ensure no other children die at school from an allergy.
“Schools are left to interpret patchy, vague guidance and to carry life-or-death responsibility alone. This is unforgivable,” she said.
Following a campaign by the Benedict Blythe Foundation, set up in his memory, Redditch MP Chris Bloor presented the Schools (Allergy Safety) Bill, also known as Benedict’s Law to parliament on 9 July.
Pic: Family handout
“With an ever-growing number of children requiring allergy care, it has never been more vital that the place we entrust with the care of our children – the school where we drop them off every day – is a safe and secure environment, but too often it is not,” he told the House of Commons.
The law would require an allergy policy in every school, training for staff on how to identify reactions and deal with them, and spare adrenaline pens in every school.
It is backed by more than 50 MPs, a petition signed by more than 10,000 members of the public.
“We’ve done a huge amount of research and kind of built a really strong evidence base for this, including kind of a way of delivering Benedict’s Law so that it means it doesn’t cost the government any money,” Helen told Sky News.
Most children with undiagnosed allergies have a reaction for the first time at school, she said.
“Humans will always make mistakes, but there has to be a system in the background that allows for that because at the moment it is left up to chance when things go wrong.”
Sky News has approached the Department for Education for comment.
