ALL Epinephrine Auto-Injectors Save Lives

This morning was a flurry of Back-To-School energy along with huge smacking of a food allergy red brick to my forehead! Even though today was my son’s start of his senior year, there was chaos as he decided on a last minute switch using EpiPen® at school to Auvi-Q®.  Our fears: that teachers or staff might not realize, during an emergency, that the school’s supply of stock epinephrine EpiPen® contains the same life saving epinephrine that theAuvi-Q® dispenses.  We also realized that his school’s Emergency Action Plan forms were out dated and did not include the images of how to use the Auvi-Q®.  How did we miss that one?
Logic During Crisis. I immediately emailed all of his teachers to remind them of where he carries his Auvi-Q® and that yes, EpiPen® still works!  Even though logic tell us that all devices are equal when it comes to epinephrine.  During an emergency, will someone have the ability to recall that it is okay to grab the school’s supply of stock epinephrine, which most likely will be an EpiPen® thanks for the free EpiPen 4 Schools program?
Lessons learned.  The moral of this story is that every school year needs to be approached as if it is the first.  I feel terrible that my son or myself did not catch the missing Auvi-Q® instructions.  I learned that due to the multiple choices of epinephrine auto-injectors available, we need to constantly remind personnel that if their school maintains a certain brand of stock epinephrine, it can be used during an emergency on my child too.  What flashed before my eyes, was a teacher forgetting where my son maintains his epinephrine (in his binder) and then does not grab the school’s wall mounted stock epinephrine supply of EpiPen®.

Wishing everyone a safe, healthy and happy school year free of allergic reactions!