Teenage Girl Died From Extreme Asthma Attack After Allergic Reaction to Dogs

Teenage Girl Died From Extreme Asthma Attack After Allergic Reaction to Dogs
A stock photo of an ambulance (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
John Smithies
11/29/2017
Updated:
9/25/2019

A 17-year-old girl with a dog allergy died at a house party when the hosts refused to give out their address to the ambulance, an inquest has heard.

Kiana Owen had a severe asthma attack at the party in Tyneside, northern England, in the early hours of Sep. 3, 2016.

She was struggling to breathe in and went into the garden to call an ambulance at 1:18 a.m., according to ChronicleLive.

Because she had never been to the property before she didn’t know the exact address—and the couple who lived there refused to tell her because emergency services “may have informed social services.”

She then went into the lane behind the garden where she had a fit. The ambulance eventually arrived at 1:38 a.m. by which point she had gone into cardiac arrest.

She was pronounced dead at 2:53 a.m. at a nearby hospital.

Kiana’s family told the hearing she had asthma from a young age and had suffered a mild attack two weeks earlier in an allergic reaction to her grandmother’s dogs.

Kimberley Heston, who lived at the property, was pregnant at the time of the death. She told ChronicleLive: “I didn’t know she was allergic to dogs but we put the dogs in the kitchen when she started feeling unwell.

“I heard her shouting outside and I remember saying: ‘Would you please leave the garden?’ - because I was pregnant and I didn’t want social services coming round.

“That’s why I didn’t want to give my address - I didn’t know she was on the phone to the ambulance at the time.

“I didn’t know it was that bad until later when everyone went outside and she was in the alley, on the floor.

“Me and my partner were helping Kiana while someone else was on the phone—that’s when I knew it was serious.”

At the inquest, Detective Sergeant Kimberley Flynn said: “From the statements that were taken it would appear Kimberley and Lewis didn’t want the ambulance or police to attend because potentially that would have informed social services.”

The coroner recorded a conclusion of death by natural causes.

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