Boy died ‘after another pupil threw small piece of cheese at him’

A boy with a severe dairy allergy died after another pupil threw a small piece of cheese at him, an inquest heard.

Karanbir Cheema, known as Karan, went into anaphylactic shock after he was hit with the cheese, which was half the size of a post-it note, the hearing was told.

An inquest into the death heard that Karan, 13, was severely allergic to wheat, gluten, all dairy products, eggs and nuts, and he was also asthmatic and suffered from atopic eczema.

‘I didn’t mean any harm – I’m sorry, I’m sorry for what I did,’ the boy who threw the cheese told the hearing.

He was passed the cheese by another boy, who claimed although he knew Karan had serious allergies, he didn’t realise cheese was dairy.

Senior Coroner Mary Hassell asked: ‘At the time, what did you think having an allergy meant for Karan? What did you think would happen?’

The boy said: ‘I thought he would get a rash or have a fever or something similar to that – I didn’t know it was that serious.’

The inquest heard the boy who threw the cheese would thrown food at other pupils ‘daily’ and had thrown a banana skin at someone earlier that day.

Asked why he flicked it by Andrew Hogarth QC representing Karanbir’s family, he said: ‘I did not know to be honest … it was immature behaviour.’

After the school called 999, paramedics were told over the phone that it was ‘just an allergic reaction’ but when they arrived Karan was ‘gasping for air’ and had broken out in hives.

The staff had already administered two spoons of piriton, an epipen and given him his inhaler but shortly after paramedics arrived Karan stopped breathing.

The first two paramedics began to perform CPR on the young boy, gave him adrenaline and used a defibrillator while they waited for back-up to arrive

Karan, described as ‘so bright he could have been anything he wanted’, was brought to Great Ormond Street Hospital but died ten days later on July 9 with his family by his side.

A statement from Karan’s mother Rina was read also read out about his allergies.

She said her son was ‘diligent’ about his allergies and skin condition and was in good health the morning he died.

Mrs Cheema also said the school had a full report on all Karan’s conditions.

The inquest expected to last three days continues.