‘Perfectly healthy’ teen died after making chicken nachos

A ‘perfectly healthy’ teenager died in a ‘freak accident’ after food particles obstructed her lung capacity leading to haemorrhaging, an inquest heard today.

Abby Reese Beaumont, 15, from Pantymwyn, Mold, North Wales, went into cardiac arrest after suffering a coughing fit when she aspirated on a ‘foreign body’ in April last year.

Coroner John Gittins recorded a conclusion of accidental death, stressing that the young woman’s passing was not caused by choking.

The ‘full of life’ teenager’s devastated parents said last year during the opening of the inquest they had been ‘waiting in limbo’ to find out what happened to their ‘beautiful daughter’.

The teen had made herself chicken nachos for dinner at around 7pm, before going up to her bedroom to lie on her bed on April 2.

Her dad Darren Beaumont, 51, said he heard coughing late at night but claimed it was ‘nothing out of the ordinary’

At 11pm, the young girl had made her way downstairs to get a glass of water in the kitchen.

She was found on the floor by her dad ‘alive but struggling to breathe’ with blood coming from her mouth and nose.

Abby had gone into cardiac arrest by the time the ambulance arrived at 11.28pm, despite CPR carried out by a neighbour.

She was rushed to hospital at Wrexham, but the coroner said he supported her parents’ belief that she had died at home.

Paramedic Jonathan Cross said Abby had ‘a big airway problem and profuse haemorrhaging’.

Describing his daughter’s final moments, businessman Mr Beaumont said he had been at the scene ‘in a flash’, adding: ‘Unfortunately there was nothing that could have been done to save her.’

Abby’s mother Alison Beaumont, 47, added they had ‘all tried their best’.

After carrying out a postmortem, paediatric pathologist, Dr Rajeev Shukla said that Abby had no underlying medical conditions.

She suggested her lungs may have bled because of ‘obstruction by food particles’ that could have been caused by stomach acid being brought back up and swallowed back down the wrong way.

A medical cause of death was given as ‘foreign body aspiration with massive pulmonary haemorrhage’.

Mr Gittins told the bereaved parents he could not ‘adequately express his condolences for the loss of Abby’.

He said: ‘This was just an awful, awful event which befell you in relation to the loss of a lovely daughter.

‘She was a girl very cared for and loved. It’s a very, very tragic scenario that befell you.’