Toddler with severe allergy '˜could have died' due to Pizza Hut staff blunder

A toddler with a life-threatening dairy allergy had to be rushed to hospital after eating a '˜vegan' pizza at a Blackpool restaurant.
Zayaan Hussain in hospital after suffering a severe allergic reaction to a 'vegan' pizzaZayaan Hussain in hospital after suffering a severe allergic reaction to a 'vegan' pizza
Zayaan Hussain in hospital after suffering a severe allergic reaction to a 'vegan' pizza

Zayaan Hussain, two, went into anaphylactic shock after eating a child’s margherita pizza at Pizza Hut, Church Street, on Sunday.

His dad Sayid, 33, said he told staff at the restaurant about his son’s allergy and asked them four times about possible cross-contamination, but was reassured that the ‘vegan’ pizza given to his son was completely safe.

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But just minutes after eating his meal, the toddler began vomiting and struggling to breathe.

Sajid said: “Even when we received the pizza, I wouldn’t let him eat it before re-confirming that it was definitely dairy-free. They said it was, so he ate the pizza.

“Ten minutes went by and he just started shutting down. He wasn’t responding to me or my wife. Something wasn’t right.”

Suspecting an allergic reaction, Sajid and wife Samia, also 33, gave Zayaan his inhaler and a dose of Piriton and called for an ambulance.

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Sajid said: “While I was on the phone he was violently sick everywhere.The paramedics arrived and his oxygen levels were really low.

“It actually got worse as we got to the hospital. There were talks of him having to be resuscitated. Luckily my wife had the Epipens with her.”

Zayaan was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital with his parents and seven-year-old sister, Amara, where he spent two days.

Pizza Hut has now admitted the toddler was given the wrong dish due to ‘human error’.

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Sajid, a businessman from Shipley, Bradford, said: “It was absolutely horrific. We could have lost our son that day.

”There are no words to truly describe what we were thinking. It was a very, very traumatic experience and not one I would ever want to go through again.”

He added that he later spoke with Pizza Hut bosses about the incident, and that he has informed Environmental Health.

He said: “The last thing I want is for someone else to be in that sort of situation. We managed to save our son, but other people might not be so lucky.

“Zayaan is still not quite himself but he’s much better.

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“If we hadn’t seen that something wasn’t quite right and didn’t call an ambulance when we did, who knows where we would be now.”

A Pizza Hut spokesman said: “We are in contact with the family involved and are very sorry for what happened.

“We realise it was an unacceptable situation and have already completed an internal investigation with the Hut, which found that the wrong pizza was given to the family as a result of human error.

“We will share the full investigation findings with the Hussain family and are taking appropriate action at this restaurant to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”