'My life was definitely in danger'
Woman thankful ambulances now have EpiPens
following major allergic reaction
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Monday, January 11, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Lisc Daley headed to a favourite watering hole with friends on New Year's Eve.
Lisc Daley is believed to be the first person city paramedics used an EpiPen on, a device ambulances previously did not carry. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo |
The woman with a shellfish allergy was dining on meatballs when she started feeling "tight."
She couldn't assume she was having an allergic reaction because she had not intentionally consumed shellfish and didn't have all the usual systems of a severe allergic reaction. But within minutes she was swelling up and sweating. Daley had left her EpiPen she usually carries at home.
Around 10 minutes after first feeling symptoms, her eyes were swelling shut and she couldn't breathe.
She can't remember much more after that but she knows the ambulance crew that whisked her to Stanton Territorial Hospital administered an EpiPen.
"If there hadn't have been an EpiPen on board (the ambulance) that night I don't know if I would've made it," Daley told Yellowknifer, adding she's thankful the ambulance arrived quickly.
EpiPen is the brand name of a disposable, pre-filled injection device used to administer epinephrine if someone is experiencing a severe allergic reaction. The drug opens airways and accelerates the heart rate.
Daley is believed to be the first person city paramedics have helped with the device since ambulances started carrying them last year, according to Fire Chief Darcy Hernblad.
"I'm not a doctor but I know my life was definitely in danger," Daley said about what could have happened had the ambulance crew not had the device.
Daley was rushed to hospital where she remained for about 12 hours, receiving further medical care.
"They were fabulous," she said about the health-care workers at Stanton. "They were really on the ball and calming."
Last year, then-city Coun. Dan Wong urged city administrators to carry the devices on ambulances.
"If they use it once, it's worth it," Wong had said.
Grant White, the city's director of community services, wrote in an e-mail in May that EpiPens weren't carried because they have a short shelf life, they aren't used often and crews can get patients to hospital quickly in this small city.
However, Hernblad said another factor was at play.
"We were working toward carrying EpiPens on our ambulances when (Wong) brought it up," the fire chief said Wednesday.
The department, which runs the ambulance service for the city, needed a doctor that oversees its medical protocols to sign off on carrying them, which happened last year. Crews were then trained and several of the devices are now carried on each ambulance.
Historically, there are one to two patients each year who need transport to hospital because of severe allergic reactions, Hernblad said.
In the past, they've been able to get those people to hospital fast enough to save their lives, he said.
"The reality is we should have been carrying it a long time ago, but with all the other logistics, we just didn't get there," he said.
Hernblad said he's glad the devices were in place in
time to help Daley.
