Teen girl’s final four words before dying on mother’s shoulder during allergic reaction on holiday

A young UK woman has died following an allergic reaction at a restaurant in Rabat, Morocco, during her last night on holiday with her family.

Lily King, 18, suffered from a number of severe allergies, and died in her mother’s arms during a frantic rush to the hospital in June.

The university student was nearing the end of a weeks-long trip to the North African nation where her mother is from, after a stressful semester studying.

The anaphylactic reaction was the second severe shock she had suffered in less than six months.

Lily’s parents Michael and Aicha King discovered their daughter “had a plethora of severe allergies”, not limited to fish, seafood, nuts, sesame and dairy, when she was born, they revealed in a JustGiving fundraiser for the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation.

But stress had also recently been playing a factor in the severity of Lily’s allergic reactions.

“Life stresses started to impact on her body’s ability to cope when there was an allergic reaction,” her parents said.

High levels of stress experienced during year 13, and subsequent stressors during her first year studying economics at Exeter University, impacted her recovery from a serious anaphylactic shock experienced at the beginning of 2024.

“It brought on a snowball effect of health issues,” her parents said. “Lily’s body was in severe recovery mode before her fatal shock.”

Lily and her family were holidaying in Morocco to celebrate her achievements and unwind, when they sat down to eat what would be her final meal.

Aisha explicitly outlined her daughter’s allergies “three times” to the restaurant staff in Arabic as she ordered Lily grilled chicken and chips, she told The Sun.

The dish that came out additionally had vegetables and a sauce on the plate, and Aisha told the outlet she was immediately suspicious of some “carrots” which looked like prawns.

But, after asking the waiter to take it away, the staff assured them that the dish contained none of the substances to which Lily was allergic.

Lily began to eat, and shortly after experienced itchiness, nausea and breathing difficulties.

An antihistamine used to control allergy symptoms, and the two EpiPens the family had on them at the time, were not enough to ease the escalation of her severe reaction.

Before they rushed to the hospital, the restaurant staff demanded they first pay the bill, The Sun reports.

An ambulance had been called, but after it failed to appear after some time, they began the 30-minute drive to the hospital themselves, during which Lily, with her head on Aisha’s shoulder, suffered a heart attack and a catatonic fit.

“She told me ‘I love you, goodbye’ and then passed away,” Aisha told The Sun.

Lily was kept on life support for several days before she was formally declared deceased on June 23 — a heart attack was named as the official cause of her death, it reports.

Police in Morocco have reportedly launched an investigation into the restaurant, but Lily’s family are unaware of its progress, according to The Sun.