A TEENAGE medical student died after suffering a severe allergic reaction to a nut she unwittingly ate in a cake, an inquest has heard.

Poppy Harvey, of New Quay Lane, Woodbridge, died at Ipswich Hospital in Heath Road on Sunday, June 20 last year.

The inquest heard Poppy had been diagnosed with a severe allergy to eggs and nuts at a young age and carried an EpiPen.

Greater Suffolk Coroner Dr Peter Dean said in their statement Poppy’s family raised a number of issues, including the management of her allergy by her employers, her own regulation of her condition, the response of the ambulance service, the treatment received at Ipswich Hospital and the effectiveness of the two EpiPens to save her.

The 19-year-old was at work at Grove Court care home in Beech Way, Woodbridge when she ate a piece of cake and suffered the allergic reaction - an allergy her employers were unaware of.

Poppy called an ambulance and her parents Steve and Marcia Harvey, who arrived at the scene to find their daughter lying on the floor outside, with two EpiPens already injected into her legs.

Paramedic Claude Trudghill, who is now retired, said Poppy’s face was “purple and blotchy” and she was struggling to breathe.

He told the inquest he gave Poppy adrenaline and treatment to try to stop her fitting.

En route to hospital Mr Trudghill said his colleague called for a pre-alert call to be sent to tell staff of Poppy’s serious condition.

But despite the call he said he was “surprised” there were no nurses or doctors ready at the A&E department to receive her.

He estimated it was about three minutes before a nurse appeared, while his colleague Liam Smith estimated it was between four and five minutes before a doctor came to assist.

Abhijit Bose, an A&E consultant at Ipswich Hospital, said: “Communication between the ambulance people and us failed.

“It is possible there was not a feeling that it was as urgent as it appeared when Poppy came in.”

Mr Bose said the hospital receive numerous pre-alert calls which are only answered by senior staff, who have to make a judgement on each response.

He said it is not possible to have a crash team ready every time but admitted on June 20 there were enough staff in the department.

Mr Bose added: “This time it went wrong.”

Allergy expert Dr Richard Pumphrey was asked if the delays at the hospital could have adversely affected the situation. He said: “It is not possible to tell definitively. By the stage she reached hospital, on the balance of probabilities, there have been irreversible damage done to the brain. That isn’t to say she couldn’t have been resuscitated but my guess is she may already have had significant permanent brain damage.”

Dr Dean said he will ask the government’s chief medical officer to address four areas. He said there needed to be greater clarity about where the pen should most effectively be injected on the body, advice about emergency calls following the first injection, concerns over the needle length and conflicting advice on positioning casualties suffering an allergic reaction.

He said a verdict in this case was less important than the “fact finding journey”. He said Poppy died of anaphylactic shock and asphyxia, and complications following a food-induced allergic reaction.