Should American Airlines Have Been Better Prepared For This Child’s In-Flight Emergency?
Jeff Edwards March 06, 2018
After her son went into anaphylaxis on an international flight, Francine Ingrassia says she was surprised to learn that the American Airlines medical kits do not include a lifesaving EpiPen.
When Francine Ingrassia’s 10-year-old-son son Luca had a severe allergic reaction to cashews served on an American Airlines flight home from from Aruba to the US, the mother quickly sought help from flight attendants. She says that the tense moments that followed were made all the more terrifying when it became clear that the aircraft did not have an EpiPen available for just such an emergency.
Ingrassia later recounted the nerve-racking experience on social media. She says that her child developed symptoms shortly after eating mixed nuts served during the flight.
“The scariest thing was that American Airlines did not have an EpiPen in their medical kits and served nuts on a plane?” Ingrassia wrote in a Facebook post after the flight. “We need to change this. Shame on American Airlines for not having an EpiPen in their medical kits.”
Fortunately, another passenger on the flight offered their own EpiPen and a nurse on the plane was able to assess the child’s condition and administer the potentially lifesaving medicine. Luca is reportedly doing fine now. Although she has lashed out at the airline, Ingrassia has nothing but praise for cabin crew members and the nurse who assisted her son.
Ingrassia says that she did not carry an EpiPen and allowed the family to eat the mixed nuts served as an inflight snack because her son had never had a reaction to nuts prior to the flight. She insists that rather than assigning blame, she would simply like the airline to reconsider a policy that she believes is putting lives in danger.
“I am forever grateful for everyone on that flight who aligned themselves to save his life – Nurse Kelly, teen passengers who gave us their EpiPens and staff,” Ingrassia told Fox News. “But I am so disappointed in AA as a corporation for endangering lives of so many passengers. I pray for change and change will happen if we come together on this. Nothing was more terrifying than being at 33,000 feet without being able to get the immediate medical attention you could on land. Let’s focus on making sure this never happens to anyone again.”
While American Airlines officials expressed concern for Ingrassia and her son, the carrier dismissed the notion that the airline is putting passengers in jeopardy.
“The medical kits onboard our aircraft comply with federal regulations and contain Epinephrine – the same medicine contained in an Epi-Pen,” an airline spokesperson said in a statement to Yahoo news. “Our professional flight attendants are familiar with the contents of the onboard kits. They are able to provide general First Aid and are trained in CPR and using an AED. But we require a licensed medical professional to administer more extensive forms of treatment like injections for the health and safety of our customers.”
[Photo: Shutterstock]
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A kid CAN manifest a life threatening reaction to an ingested food, despite never having had any previous allergic reaction. It happened to me while on vacation in Florida when I was about 12. I ate popcorn shrimp for dinner, and within two hours, I was lying on the bathroom floor of my family's hotel room, broken out into hives with my throat closing up, unable to breathe.
Irresponsible parent in my view - blaming everyone everyone else except herself. Where I work in a public K-12 setting, we do not have Epi pens for emergencies. We tell all parents to bring their Epi pens for storage in the Nurse's office for use only by the student.
Laws state that meds need to be given by a med professional. If you are of a certain level of training, you may need someone of a higher level to tell you it's appropriate to give X dose by X route. FA's would have to have advanced training to give these types of meds. Just sayin....
RN's and EMT's give Epi al the time but its not usually in the form an epi pen. Those pens are designed for non medical people to administer. its carried on ambulances and fire trucks but with a slightly different way to administer it. These are syringe's where you have to measured up the dose so it not quite so lay person friendly. Sounds like thats what AA has.
So.....they have it on board, but it can only be administered by a licensed medical professional.....and they're NOT putting passenger lives in jeopardy? I guess they require a licensed medical professional to be aboard every single flight.