State legislation in washington allowed first providers to give auto-inject epi for food anaphylaxis but ONLY to patients under the age of 18. I feel the age restriction is much to limiting, & should be 65. The arguement for age restriction is that someone having a heart attack, that is mistaken for anaphylaxis, & is given epi, this could be lethal. The arguement was also made that EMT's could not make the differential diagnosis. EMT's may have hundred's of hours of training & experience. Parents of the severly allergice are given 5 minutes at best in how,when,where,& why to inject epi. A bystander should be able to give a history for the anaphylactic, EMT's are trained to look at medical alert braclets if they are present. The individual having a heart attack would most likely be male,older,a smoker,sedentary life style/obese,strong family history & perhaps a medical alert braclet if pacemaker present or other cardiac medications. I don't believe the lives of anaphylactics should be sacrificied because of a POTENTIAL for harm to those who have made poor life-style choices. The severly food allergic have a medical condition through no fault of their own, while most people who suffer heart attacks have made some poor life-style choices. If legislation should come up in your home state, please read the fine print, especially regarding age restrictions.
Age Limits
Posted on: Sat, 05/15/1999 - 9:13pm
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Yes, it does sound like age restriction might be limiting, BUT please do not make a blanket statement about heart attacks being caused by poor life styles. Heart disease can also be caused by genetics, diabetes, congential diseases, etc... and NOT just "poor life-style", there are people who have heart attacks in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties--they deserve safe treatment too. I have seen many family members die from heart disease that was NOT caused by poor life style [img]http://client.ibboards.com/peanutallergy/frown.gif[/img].
terry,
I am a EMT. My husband is PA. He was in a coma for a long time due to a reaction. I took the EMT training for myself to learn things that I didn't understand while he was in the Coma. I learned that each state have different laws in regards to admin. the EPI.
As a EMT I can assist giving the EPI, but as a wife I will give the EPI.
Some EMT's are part time fire fights and the course isn't that long. When it came time to learn about allergic reations it was went over quickly, that is until I brought in the trainer EPI and the real EPI in my purse that I carry at all time. It is to bad that people just don't understand that it's life and death to people who are having the reaction. It's by word of mouth by concerned people that will make the differance. I hope this helps alittle
Mel