Girl, 10, ends up in hospital after trying sour sweet called ‘Black Death’
A 10-year-old girl ended up in hospital after burning her throat on the ‘world’s sourest sweet’, called Black Death.
Mia-Rose Bowyer, who had seen people trying Black Death on TikTok and YouTube, accidently inhaled the boiled sweet due to its extreme sourness, leaving it lodged in her throat.
Mia-Rose’s aunt tried to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre and called 999, but thankfully, after two minutes the girl managed to remove it herself.
She was then rushed to hospital where doctors put her on oxygen, steroids and antibiotics to help her breathe and prevent further swelling.
Her mum Stevie Bower, 32, said: ‘When a consultant came to see me he said “imagine a third-degree burn on her arm but down her throat”‘.
After three days and a number of scans and x-rays, Mia-Rose was given the all clear to go home but will need a follow-up appointment to see if there’s any permanent damage to her vocal chords.
Stevie added: ‘Her voice sounds very husky, I’m praying her voice does come back.’
The youngster, from Reading, Berkshire, had been at a sleepover at her aunt’s (Stevie’s sister), with Stevie’s other daughter, Olivia, 13 and their cousins on Saturday night and was looking forward to watching films and eating snacks.
With her mum’s permission, Mia-Rose had asked her aunt to try the Black Death sweet, which is sold by Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe, a firm with more than 50 franchises in the UK and Hong Kong.
Mia-Rose, whose lips went blue during the ordeal, said: ‘I saw videos on TikTok of other children trying the Black Death sweet. I saw them pull funny faces and wanted to try it.
‘At first when it went into my mouth it wasn’t sour but then it went really sour.
‘I went to spit it out, [but] it rolled back [down my throat]. It was really scary.
‘It was a relief when it came out. When the sweet came out I threw it on the floor and cuddled my aunty. I thought I was going to die.
‘My throat is sore and burnt, I would never have a sweet like that again.’
Black Death, marketed as ‘the most sour sweet ever’, comes with a warning that it ‘may cause temporary mouth and/or stomach irritation’ and that it’s not suitable for children under eight.
A spokesman from Mr Simms said Black Death had been removed from shelves while it conducts an investigation, but added that the sweet, which tastes of lemon, has been sold for 11 years with no other incidents reported.
Full-time mum Stevie said: ‘The girls like sour sweets and had seen videos on TikTok and YouTube about one called Black Death – ‘the world’s most super-sour sweet’.
‘They’re not recommended for children under the age of eight and it does state on the packet it can cause stomach irritation and irritation for your mouth.
‘I didn’t look into that until afterwards because you don’t expect a sweet to do any of that.
‘I thought ‘well if it’s not sold to under eights and it’s in a sweet shop it can’t be that bad’. But obviously I thought wrong.
She said her sister bought the sweet from a store in Reading.
‘I was fully aware she had, and I didn’t think anything of it.’
Stevie said that evening she got a call from her sister’s boyfriend.
‘I could hear everybody screaming and I could hear kids crying. “He said ‘you need to get back now’. I was like what’s happened?
‘At this time Mia still had the sweet lodged in her throat, I could hear them trying to get it out. I felt sick and I was shaking.
‘When you’re being told that I was just lost for words, it was like I could be going home to no child – a lifeless child. I feared she could die.
‘It ended up being [stuck] nearly two minutes, by this time her lips had already gone blue.
‘While my sister was doing all she could, Mia ended up getting her hand and dislodging the sweet.’
Stevie is sharing what happened to warn other parents about the potential dangers.
She said: ‘It should be an 18+ thing, but honestly I don’t think it should be sold at all because it could happen to anybody.
‘TikTok allowing videos like this annoys me. It’s become a craze ‘oh try this it’s just a sour sweet’.
A spokesman for Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe said: ‘We are extremely sorry to hear of what happened to Mia and wish her a full and speedy recovery. We take such matters seriously and an investigation into this case will be undertaken as a matter of urgency.
‘Many of our customers are children and we have rigorous procedures to ensure they can enjoy our sweets in safety and the ingredients used in our products comply with food health and safety standards in line with UK legislation.
‘The Black Death is promoted as a super sour sweet made exclusively for Mr Simms by a manufacturer with whom we have a long relationship and which is respected within the industry. It is clearly labelled as not being suitable anyone aged 8 and under.
‘This sweet has been on sale for 11 years and this is the only such case reported to us since the product was launched.
‘However, as a responsible business we have taken the decision to take the sweet off sale and informed our franchisees to do the same until the outcome of the investigation is known.’
Tiktok said that this type of content is not specific to their platform and there are multiple recent reaction videos with high views across other platforms, not just TikTok.
They said TikTok is a 13+ platform, and anyone below that age is not allowed on the platform.
YouTube has been contacted for comment.
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