British Indian teenager dies after sipping a cocktail while holidaying in Spain

Image by GoFundMe.com

A British Indian student, who was holidaying in Spain is reported to have died after sipping pina colada and getting a serious allergic reaction.

18-year-old Shiv Mistry was set to join the University of Cambridge to study Medicine. Before starting his course, he went on a trip to Costa del Sol.

Mistry, on 8 July, was with his friends who had joined him on the trip when he drank the cocktail which contained cow cream instead of coconut cream.

Describing the incident, a statement was read by assistant coroner Ian Wade who said, “Shiv was out with friends in a local pub in Fuengirola, Spain, near their apartment. He had a sip of Pina Colada and it transpired that the coconut cream was replaced with cream. He wasn’t drinking as such – he had taken a sip of a friend’s drink and passed it onto others.

He recognised immediately that he had consumed something with milk and he made his way back to the apartment. He was sweaty, hyperventilating and took cetirizine, a powerful antihistamine. He went to the bathroom to vomit. He was weak and dazed and requested a friend to call the emergency services.

He then requested an EpiPen and an inhaler. His other friends arrived and one left to guide emergency services to the room. Each gasp was longer apart until his breathing stopped. They gave him CPR for 20 minutes and someone called his parents on WhatsApp to tell them what had happened. They said to apply a second EpiPen. Emergency services arrived and they used a defibrillator.”

Wade went on to say that the young man had to be taken by an air ambulance to the Costa Del Sol Hospital where he was pronounced brain stem dead on the same day.

Mistry had unfortunately suffered from an anaphylactic shock which ultimately resulted in his death.

High Wycombe’s Royal Grammar School where he had studied, described him as a “wonderful lad – kind, caring, humorous and very able”.

His parents also released a statement saying that their son’s “courageous” friends did “everything possible to save his life” and deserved praise for their actions.

A GoFundMe page which has been dedicated to raising funds for Anaphylaxis UK, said the student “has lived with a dairy allergy since he was a little boy.”

More than £11,000 was donated to help anaphylaxis on the platform, which far exceeded the initial target of £1,000.