Barnack Primary School teaching assistant tells inquest how she tried to save Stamford boy Benedict Blythe after allergic reaction
A teaching assistant has recounted the action she and other school staff took to try to save a pupil from an allergic reaction that proved to be fatal.
Speaking on the second day of an inquest into the death of five-year-old Benedict Blythe, Barnack Primary School teaching assistant Sophie Brown said he had vomited at break time but showed no other early signs of anaphylaxis.
Minutes later Benedict collapsed and she administered two doses of adrenaline and began to give him CPR before others took over. But Benedict was pronounced dead in hospital two hours later.
On December 1, 2021, the inquest jury heard, Benedict had eaten breakfast cereal with oat milk and a dairy-free advent calendar chocolate at home in Stamford, before being driven to school by his father, Peter.
The retired RAF senior aircraftsman’s witness statement was read out to the inquest jury at Peterborough Town Hall this morning (Tuesday, July 1), outlining that it had been a normal start to the day, and that he had dropped off Benedict at school at 8.30am.
Two hours later he received a call from the school asking him to pick up his son because he was unwell.
Mr Blythe described arriving in the reception classroom to a scene of ‘chaos’ with Benedict lying near the playground door wearing his uniform and jumper.
His teacher was on a 999 call and Mr Blythe began CPR on Benedict but found his airway to be blocked by mucus which he struggled to clear.
An automated defibrillator was brought to the classroom after about 10 minutes, but when the pads were applied to Benedict’s torso it said no shock was needed, suggesting he still had a pulse.
Paramedics arrived at 10.56am and took over CPR from Mr Blythe and school staff, and Benedict’s mother, Helen, arrived at 10.58am, just before an air ambulance crew.
“Benedict was dying in front of us and I could not believe what was happening,” Mr Blythe recalled in his statement.
“He was a loving child and I miss him every day.”
Teaching assistant Miss Brown, from the witness box, told the jury she had completed anaphylaxis training in September 2021, three months before Benedict’s death, and that it was a course emailed to her, originating from ‘the school nurse’.
Miss Brown recalled watching a video on how to use an adrenaline auto-injector pen and that she had also had in-person training in how to use one during a first aid course in October 2021.
Benedict was one of three children in the reception class at Barnack Primary School with specific allergies or intolerances, and he was not the only pupil who kept an adrenaline auto-injector in school.
Miss Brown did not recall being shown any written documentation regarding Benedict’s allergies, such as an asthma and allergy management plan.
She described feeling comfortable with the prospect of having to use an adrenaline auto-injector pen on a child but did not feel it was immediately necessary when Benedict vomited for the first time on December 1, because he had no other symptoms of allergic reaction, such as hives, or red or tingling lips.
Miss Brown recalled it was about 10 minutes after he was first sick that Benedict vomited a second time.
“We were sitting at a table and I read him a story. He was talking OK and he was happy and giggling and made a few points about the book we were reading,” she said.
Miss Brown had put Benedict’s sickness down to him having been off school poorly the previous day, and said she did not recall him asking for his blue asthma inhaler. She said if he had asked for this, she would have taken it as a sign of him having an allergic reaction and would have immediately fetched his ‘red bag’ containing his two adrenaline auto-injector pens.
As it was, Benedict was taken outside for ‘fresh air’ by his class teacher Jenny Brass but he then fell unconscious.
Miss Brown’s witness statement said: “I heard Jenny shouting my name and she was carrying Benedict inside. He was floppy and appeared to be unconscious. His skin was grey-blue which I took to mean he was in shock and I immediately got his bag and administered his EpiPen.”
She added that she could feel Benedict breathing and placed him in the recovery position but then he stopped breathing and she performed CPR.
CPR was taken over by staff member Mrs Alexander, Benedict’s father and the school music teacher before paramedics arrived. The school caretaker had fetched the defibrillator from a public building in Barnack.
The inquest is scheduled to continue for the rest of the week, with other school staff and health professionals due to give evidence.