I was flipping channels again yesterday, didn't get in as much reading on Indian politics as I hoped and landed on an Indian CNN channel. The drama that unfolded was unreal and looked like an Indian version of Jerry Springer and the same broadcast was shown over and over again. A young 17 year old girl died from an asthma attack while under the care of a reputable school in Delhi. The drama on TV was regarding a press conference/parent meeting held by the school to defend what had happened. As the principal was speaking, many of the mothers and students were irate and yelling at the principal calling her a liar and that the school was at fault. There was no control or order at all. The details are not clear and somewhat contradictory. The principal claims they gave the girl oxygen, called her parents and then when the girl felt better, took her in their van to the hospital even though the girl's mother had insisted she be taken to her aunt's house. The girl had sadly died on the way to the hospital. The parents are claiming that the school was negligent and should not have waited for their car to come and instead taken her directly to the hospital and she might have been saved. The principal did not seem to be liked at all, the parents and students were calling for her resignation and she took the stance that the school was not at fault but with a situation like this, maybe she should have shown more empathy and sadness because the whole situation was going downhill. I'm not sure if the school is at fault, they may have tried to make the best decision they could under the circumstances but I wonder if there are proper procedures set in place so the staff knows what do to. It was so sad to hear that a young girl's life was taken and yet seemed like it was avoidable if the right action had been taken.
Rushil has mild asthma and food allergies and although it is under control right now, I'm a bit worried about what would happen if he had an attack at his school. The one positive thing is that his school has an onsite doctor and nurse. Are the schools both here in India and abroad equipped to handle more than cuts and scrapes? It is not an easy call to make because if they do administer any treatment and something goes wrong, they will be in trouble and same thing happens if they don't do anything and something goes wrong. I'm sure this is something the school administrators agonize over, at least I hope they do.
6 comments:
Very very scary. Not to add fuel to your worry, but my cousin's wife is a doctor here, and she told us the story of her medical school classmate who was visiting India and had an Anaphylaxis reaction, went to the hospital, knowing exactly what she needed and asked for an epi-pen sort of thing, was refused it and told she was fine, and she later died. Totally unnecessarily. Rushil is now thankfully old enough to realize if something happens and what needs to be done, right?
Incidentally, in yesterday's USA Today the front page had some breakthrough news about food allergies and children. I did not read it, maybe you can find it?
Yes, where you get admitted is very important. There are many hospitals that are not well equipped nor have the right staff.
I heard about the latest breakthrough in food allergies. Something along the lines of introducing the allergen to the person little by little and after some period they are no longer allergic to it.
Very very scary. I know in my friend's case, her son was allergic to peanuts for a while and the doctor introduced mild quantities over the last 2 years and now he is completely allergy free..
I am scared to try this on Anika though..
The nurses here at school supposedly know how to administer Epi pen (I do not think they have jabbed anyone yet - my gut says they have watched the video just like I did). I am not sure how much I will remember in a crisis moment if I did it the right way.
Ouch. Medical emergencies in India still scare me...I have no problem with the quality of non-emergency care, and prefer to get some procedures in India, but emergencies - yup.
Does Rushil need an epi-pen? Can you train him to use it himself?
As for introducing allergens as a means of controlling them, isn't that the premise behind homeopathy?
M
Yes Maith it is a lot of like homeopathy.
Although Rushil was prescribed an epi-pen, we have never used it, he hasn't had an anaphalytic attack, his allergies were determined from tests. Probably his most severe reaction is to cashews and Benadryl was sufficient to handle it.
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