Seated beside the tearful mother of a girl who died in school of an allergic reaction to peanuts, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) signed legislation Thursday intended to help schools come to the aid of such students.
The two bills were inspired, in part, by the death of 7-year-old Amarria Johnson, who died at her Chesterfield County elementary school in January.
“Virginia must do everything it can to ensure the safety of our young people while they are in school,” McDonnell said at a bill-signing ceremony in Richmond. “This legislation and the money in the recently passed budget will help prevent another tragedy like Amarria Johnson’s from occurring in a public school in the commonwealth. Having a plan in place and access to epinephrine in schools, where children spend half their day, is critical.”
Commonly referred to as the “EpiPen bills,” the measures direct local school boards to establish policies for keeping epinephrine pens on hand at every school, so that a school nurse or other employee could administer it to any student thought to be having an anaphylactic reaction. Henceforth, it was announced, the legislation will be known as “Amarria’s Law.”
This is one bill I can sure support. I have grandchildren with severe shellfish allergies and I had a colleague die from a hornet sting. The death of my friend happened in less than 15 minutes. His physician had told him he didn’t think he needed an EpiPen. It was a nasty death. Jack’s throat swelled shut. He was dead before the rescue squad could get to his home in Marshall.
Peanuts, shellfish, and other etibles can do the same thing, depending on one’s tolerance. It is also nothing to play with. Allergies are strange. One day you can just have swelling. The next time it happens you can die. Anything we can do to save people’s lives, so much the better. This is one time I am going to say Good Job! to the legislators and governor.
My wife and I carried an epipen for my older boy. We never needed, thank God, but it’s nie to know one is nearby, ’cause when you need it, man, you need it!
What is he allergic to?
Milk and Eggs. I am allergic to milk, but he’s got his mother’s reactions, which are much more violent than mine. I just get a stuffy nose, the 4 year old gets hives. The younger one isn’t allergic to anything. All we’ve ever needed is Benadryl, but we carried an epipen (and still do) just in case. Allergies are funny things, like you say.
Why didn’t SHE have an epi-pen? You can set up a medical plan with the school. By the time someone realizes what is happening (ie, on the playground) , gets a teacher’s attention, gets the medic, or gets the pen and runs back….. too much time.
My daughter carries a glucagon pen where ever she’s at during school. Her diabetes bag never leaves her side.
I applaud this bill. Now we need to teach EVERY teacher how to use it.
@Cargo, I would hope the school nurse would do it. bus drivers, aides, cafeteria workers, etc. Anyone who is in a school when kids are should know and that includes the custodians.
Chances are good the mother never had the kid allergy-tested. But the mom, if she had known, could have arranged with the school to have an epipen on hand. Paperwork is a pain, but not insurmountable by any stretch. I’ve seen way too many children with dietary problems, throwing up, and the mom just couldn’t be convinced to have the kid allergy-tested. We had our oldest one tested as soon as we could, and when we cut out the eggs and milk, our oldest boy became a completely different kid. Excema cleared up almost overnight, he slept great, just a 10x happier and healthier kid, and that was from 6 months. I wish there was some way I could tell parents to look for the signs and have their kids allergy-tested. It made a world of difference for us.
Just putting an infant on soy formula can make a huge differerence.
I was allergic to soy too, so I had nutramagen. I hear the stuff is foul, but apparently, I loved it! Both my boys are breastfed, so the wife stopped eating milk and eggs. What a difference it made!
Allergies can be tricky and just show up out of the blue:
I was caring for a toddler who had numerous allergies and one day served him meat loaf with green peppers which he had eaten many times before. All of a sudden after eating the meat loaf his face broke out in hives and his lips began to swell. I gave him benadryl immediately (he had no epi) and called his mom. She didn’t think the peppers were an issue as he had eaten them before, but thought maybe he came in contact with something else. A week later she served him a vegetable mix with red peppers in it and he had such a severe reaction she ended up calling 911 and administering to him his brother’s epi while she waited for the paramedics to arrive. After that, he too got an epi.
When my son was an infant until he was 14 months old he had chronic ear infections. On his third go-round on Biaxin at around 14 months he broke out in a rash so the doctor suspended the use of it and put him on a sulfa drug instead. After that my son was healthy enough that he never required antibiotics for anything. In fifth grade he came down with strep and was prescribed penicillian. I questioned whether or not he should take it remembering his reaction when he was a baby. Dr. said it had been so many years that a reaction was unlikely. Gave my son a dose and within less than 20 minutes he broke out into the most horrific head to toe raised rash that remained for days. Needless to say he now wears a medical alert bracelet.
@DB, thanks for your contribution. My father and brother both had that reaction to antibiotics. My kids and I can’t take anything ending in myocin–the cure is worse than what ails you in the first place. The kids got hives. I just got sicker than a dog.
2 of the gkids have horrible shell fish reactions. Then there are the outdoor allergies. Those are incapacitating me this spring.