School-trip girl 'laughing seconds before she died'

A TEENAGER who died during a school trip to London was laughing with her friends moments before she suddenly collapsed.

An inquest into the death of Lauren Murphy, 14, heard how a teacher tried desperately to save her life after she slumped to the ground in a hotel corridor.

Lauren was staying in the hotel with a party from St Columba's High School in Dunfermline, taking in various historical and tourist attractions.

Teacher Wilma Pirie broke down in tears as she described finding Lauren, who was diabetic, collapsed on the floor some time after 1am on 23 June. "I just heard girls screaming and shouting, 'we need a teacher'", she said. "I was already in my pyjamas and I just ran out of the room."

Ms Pirie "dropped down" to her knees and checked to see if Lauren was breathing and began talking to her until a first aider from the hotel arrived and the pair did mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions.

"I was just panicking," she said. "I didn't know if she could hear me or not so I started to speak to her."

Asked how Lauren had seemed in the first two days of the school trip, the teacher replied: "Just her normal, happy self."

On 22 June, Lauren spent the evening with classmates and teachers at a Pizza Express restaurant followed by a theatre trip to see Billy Elliot.

They returned to the Travelodge in King's Cross, at around 11.30pm and Lauren and her friends stayed up in the corridor chatting, the inquest at London's St Pancras Coroner's Court heard.

But as she ran back to her room, laughing with friends, she collapsed, said friend Robyn Jack, 15.Lauren was diagnosed with Type 1, insulin-dependent diabetes in 2000.

The inquest heard readings from Lauren's electronic testing machine indicated her blood-glucose levels had fluctuated widely in the months before her death and the last reading she took, at around midnight, showed it was unusually high.Recording a verdict of death by natural causes, coroner Dr Andrew Reid said: "It appears that it was with some difficulty that she (Lauren] controlled these blood-sugar levels and that is a reflection of the nature of the disease and no criticism of her or those who cared for her."