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Tragic Emma told mum 'I'm not going to make it'
Emma Sloan
The funeral of Emma Sloan at the Church of our Lady of Good Counsel, Crumlin
HEARTBREAK: Emma’s mother Caroline after her daughter’s funeral mass in Drimnagh yesterday. Photo: David Conachy
Emma Sloan's mother Caroline at the funeral in the Church of our Lady of Good Counsel, Mourne Road, Crumlin yesterday. Picture: David Conachy
Emma Sloan Friends grieve after her funeral at the Church of our Lady of Good Counsel, Mourne Road, Crumlin yesterday. Picture By David Conachy. 19/12/2013
Emma Sloan mother Carloine grieve after her funeral at the Church of our Lady of Good Counsel, Mourne Road, Crumlin yesterday. Picture By David Conachy. 19/12/2013
Caroline Sloan at her daughter's funeral
Emma Sloan died after having an allergic reaction to a peanut sauce she had in a restaurant.
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The baby sister of nut allergy victim Emma Sloan is hugging photographs of her and searching for her around the house following her death last week, her mother Caroline has revealed.
Dublin teenager Emma (14) died on O'Connell Street after a pharmacy refused to give her an EpiPen medical device when she went into anaphylactic shock.
Emma did not have her own EpiPen with her.
Moments beforehand, the teen had mistakenly eaten a peanut-based satay sauce at Jimmy Chung's Chinese buffet on Eden Quay in the city centre on Wednesday.
Her mother, Caroline, rushed the teenager to nearby Hamilton Long pharmacy but the pharmacist declined to sell the EpiPen because she didn't have a prescription.
She was told to bring Emma to A&E, but they only travelled a few yards before Emma collapsed and died with her family desperately trying to help her.
Last night grieving mum Caroline revealed that her daughter's last words as she collapsed to the ground were: “I'm not going to make it.”
Emma's funeral took place at the weekend where balloons in her memory were released by grieving friends.
“Emma should be here with us now getting excited about Christmas, but instead we are putting her presents in a box. We'll never have Christmas again,” Caroline said.
“Her little sister Mia will be two years old on the 28th, and she's going around hugging photographs of her and asking where she is. It's heartbreaking.”
“We need answers to why this happened, to why Emma could not be given the EpiPen.
“When we left the pharmacy she told us her throat was closing and she couldn't breathe, and by the time we crossed the road at the traffic lights she was collapsed on the ground.
“Nobody has knocked on our door yet to explain anything to us, not the gardai or the pharmacy or anybody. There hasn't been a word,” she added.
“I'd like to know why the pharmacist didn't give me the pen. I told him what was happening but he said I would have to go to A&E.
“Everyone tried to help Emma. As she fell to the ground she said ‘I'm not going to make it', and I knew she was gone.
“The ambulance people and the doctors worked on her, but I knew she was dead.
“We're just trying to come to terms with the fact that she's gone now.
“I still expect her to walk through the door. Emma's friends went out and had a toast to her on Saturday night, and they came back here to the house in bits.
“I had them here until after 1am,” she explained.
“Her pals are texting me about how Emma was always there for them. They are 14-year-olds with more sense than a lot of adults,” she added.
Emma's remains were cremated after her emotional funeral on Saturday.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI) has begun an investigation into her death, which is also under a Garda investigation.
cfeehan@herald.ie
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