A trainee easyJet pilot died after she was bitten by a mosquito and developed an infection which spread to her brain, an inquest heard.
Oriana Pepper, 21, from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, had passed her theory exams in Oxford with top marks and had gone to Belgium for her instrument ratings.
While in Antwerp, she was bitten by a mosquito on her forehead, by her right eye, and it appeared swollen and infected, Wednesday’s hearing in Ipswich was told.
Miss Pepper initially attended an accident and emergency department on 7 July last year but was pronounced dead within a week.
Suffolk’s senior coroner Nigel Parsley, recording a narrative conclusion, said Miss Pepper died “as a result of a serious infection caused by an insect bite to the forehead”.
He said: “An infection has entered Oriana’s skin following a bite by an insect.
“It’s then gone into the carotid artery of the neck and led to septic emboli in her brain.”
Miss Pepper was prescribed antibiotics when she attended the A&E department.
But she was driven back to the hospital two days later by her boyfriend James Hall when she collapsed.
She died in hospital three days later on 12 July, 2021.
