‘Kind’ boy who joined Mensa at 4 died after ‘allergic reaction at school’

A boy with multiple allergies who died after collapsing at school had consumed food he brought from home that day, an inquest has heard.

Benedict Blythe, 5, was taken to hospital in December 2021 after vomiting at school and died later that day.

His devastated family said the ‘quick-minded’ boy loved school and had joined Mensa aged just 4.

His death was recorded as food-induced anaphylaxis, a term for life-threatening allergic reactions which typically come on quickly.

An inquest into his death today heard he had been kept home from school the previous day because he was unwell and had vomited the night before.

But he ‘woke up as normal and in good health’ with no temperature or cough and went to school on the day of his death, the inquest jury was told.

Benedict was known to suffer from ‘asthma and a number of allergies including milk and an egg allergy’, the coroner, Elizabeth Gray, said.

His mum Helen told the hearing that the school had been given a ‘management plan’ with ‘things we knew as a family and as his parents’.

Ms Blythe, who was ‘well aware’ of her son’s allergies, said he had opened an advent calendar before school but told the inquest it contained dairy-free chocolate.

The coroner said Benedict ate a biscuit at school which he’d brought with him.

He was then offered oat milk by one of his class teachers but refused it.

Subsequently, Benedict vomited, prompting the school to call his parents so he could be collected.

He then vomited again and was taken outside for fresh air, where he collapsed.

A first aid-trained teaching assistant gave him a shot of adrenaline but he was ‘not responding’, so CPR was attempted before paramedics arrived.

In a statement read to the inquest, Benedict’s mum said vomiting was ‘always’ the first symptom of his allergic reactions but ‘how it played out after that varied’.

She also read a pen portrait to the inquest, saying: ‘Quick-minded and kind-souled, Benedict’s love of ‘playing numbers’ was one hint to why he joined Mensa when he was four.

‘His superpower was his kind heart, and it’s that kindness that is so missing from our lives.

‘The first return to a new school year after his death, children said “I wish Benedict was here – he’d stop me feeling nervous”.

‘Aside from the joy Benedict had in his life, he had to develop his own quiet kind of bravery.

‘He lived with allergies and chronic asthma, and sometimes that meant missing out – on parties, on snacks other children could eat, on ice creams from the ice cream van – but he never let it define him.

‘The day Benedict died, our world broke but what’s even more unbearable is the knowledge that we weren’t alone.

‘Benedict was not just a child with allergies, he was a whole universe – curious, funny, kind and loving – and the world should have been safer for him.’

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