British Tourist Dies After Meal in Rabat Restaurant, Mother Alleges Food Poisoning

These will be Lily King’s last vacation. While she arrived on vacation in Morocco with her mother Aicha, a 56-year-old Moroccan, in June, to visit her family and celebrate obtaining her best grades in her first year of economics at the University of Exeter, the 18-year-old girl will not return to England alive. A tragedy strikes the King family. On the last day of their vacation, June 19, her mother and she went to dinner at the Maya and Lounge restaurant in Rabat, where they had already eaten before. While things went well on their previous visit to this restaurant - which also serves as a bar and nightclub - and claims on its website to offer an "exclusive but impeccable culinary journey", "the best cuisine" and boasts a "long history of luxury hospitality", this was not the case on June 19. Speaking in Arabic, Lily’s mother was "explicit" with the restaurant staff about her daughter’s allergies, which included dairy products, fish, shellfish, sesame and nuts, and about "what she could and could not eat," said Michael, 73, the husband of the Moroccan expat. "I told [the waiter] in Arabic three times: ’Be careful, she’s very, very allergic,’" Aicha recounts. "Yeah, don’t worry, we’re careful," the waiter replied. She ordered a simple meal of grilled chicken and fries not mixed with oil for her daughter, but the waiter allegedly brought her a meal of chicken, vegetables with fries and a sauce on the side.

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The young woman’s mother says she noticed in the darkness of the restaurant that the vegetables looked like shrimp, and she then immediately asked the waiter to remove the meal. But he assured her that they were in fact cooked carrots only in olive oil, and that there was nothing dangerous on Lily’s plate. As she continued the conversation with the waiter in Arabic, her daughter took a bite of the carrots. And, within minutes, she began to have a severe reaction. "Lily said: ’It’s itching, I gave her a Piriton and she went to the bathroom. After her return, she said: I can’t breathe.’ I started calling the ambulance and we went out so she could try to breathe," Aicha said. "She had itching in her throat, which turned into nausea, stomach cramps and breathing problems," Lily’s father specified. The young woman’s mother adds: "We used the Epi Pen. But I left my bag inside the restaurant, it contained my passport and everything else, I can’t leave it, and I went to get it back. I told the restaurant: ’My daughter is dying outside.’ He told me I ’couldn’t leave without paying the bill.’" The restaurant staff told Ms. King that she "couldn’t leave without paying the bill," her husband added.

In the aftermath, the Moroccan expat says she called for help, but no one came to her aid. "I’m screaming, there are security guards at the door, but no one helps me, nothing," she said in tears. She desperately tried to call an ambulance. As the vital minutes ticked away, she had to take her car and take Lily to the hospital. According to Aicha, it had taken Lily 30 minutes to get to the hospital, by which time she had already had a heart attack. Informed, Mr. King and his eldest daughter from his first marriage rushed to Morocco. His wife and he were forced to make the heartbreaking decision to let Lily go. "They kept her alive for three days and did another test on her, but no brain function was detected, and we had to let her go." My only child, "died on my shoulder. She told me: I love you, goodbye" and then she died," Aicha said in tears. According to her husband, the hospital doctors "didn’t say much" about Lily’s illness, other than that there was no brain activity, but they asked him and his wife what could have caused it. "We told them exactly what happened in the restaurant. But on the death certificate that was subsequently issued, it states that the cause of death was a heart attack," Mr. King lamented.

Lily died on June 23 and underwent two autopsies, one in Morocco and one in England. Afterwards, her body was returned to her parents and was buried in Beaconsfield on July 10. Her friends attended the funeral. "Lily was loved by very many friends," her father assures. His daughter had not had any serious reactions during all the years she had lived in the family home in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. It was only when she went to university that "things got worse." She went into anaphylactic shock after eating a hamburger at a music festival - despite checks to make sure it was safe for her - and was rushed to the hospital. She developed kidney infections and elsewhere, but she had recovered before the trip to Morocco. The King couple are awaiting the conclusions of the investigation into the restaurant conducted by the Moroccan police. The Moroccan justice system promises to keep them informed of the progress of the investigation. "We were told we would be informed of the next steps. We want to know what’s going on, we want to know if it’s going to be swept under the rug or if they’re going to do something about it," added Aicha’s husband.