World Challenge fronts court over student’s death

An elite Melbourne school and a travel agency have been hauled before the courts after a diabetic student died during an overseas school trip.

Lachlan Cook’s school Kilvington Grammer School and World Challenge have been taken to court after he died on a school trip to Vietnam in 2019. Picture: Facebook

A travel company has admitted a health and safety failure resulted in the death of a diabetic student from Melbourne on a school trip to Vietnam.

World Challenge Expeditions Pty Ltd initially faced three charges under the OHS Act for failing to ensure risk of illness or death did not occur but two charges were withdrawn in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

Kilvington Grammar student Lachlan Cook, 16, was on a school excursion in Vietnam in 2019 when he fell ill with symptoms including vomiting and slurred speech.

A staff member from World Challenge, the travel outfit that organised the trip, treated Lachlan’s illness as gastro but did not provide specific care for his Type 1 diabetes.

The following day his condition deteriorated and his glucose levels were found to be dangerously high.

Lachlan became unresponsive and was rushed to hospital where he entered cardiac arrest. He was flown back to Australia but never regained consciousness and died in hospital.

Kirsten McMahon, mother of schoolboy Lachlan Cook, who died after falling sick on an international school trip in Vietnam, speaks to the media outside the Coroners Court of Victoria, along with her family. Picture : NCA Newswire / Nicki Connolly

Kilvington Grammar has already pleaded guilty to one charge under the Act and will appear, together with World Challenge, in the County Court on December 11 for a plea hearing.

The Coroners’ Court held an inquest into the teenager’s death in June 2022, to probe whether supervising staff had proper knowledge to treat Lachlan’s condition, if local medical assistance should have been sought sooner and if he should have received clearance to travel.

The inquest also examined why an action plan detailing how to treat Lachlan’s diabetes in the event he fell seriously ill was not provided to teachers or staff from World Travel – the group that helped organise the trip. Lachlan’s cause of death was found to be severe diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), most likely precipitated by a gastrointestinal infection.