Lucia Zaremba, a 15-year-old highschool scholar from Brooklyn, noticed how epinephrine saved her youthful brother’s life and is on a mission to make the life-saving remedy out there to others.
“My brother and I, we’re finest associates,” she informed BK Reader. “We do every thing collectively; we share just about every thing, aside from allergy symptoms.”
Lucia’s brother John is allergic to many meals, together with peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds, and legumes, and developed alpha-gal syndrome — an allergy to pink meat — from a tick chew.
She mentioned:
He went into an anaphylactic shock after consuming a steak that my dad cooked the earlier night time.
So, for him, the query turned, ‘If I can’t be protected consuming a steak that my very own dad cooks, what am I protected consuming?’
Lucia was traumatized after watching her brother’s first bout with anaphylaxis six years in the past and now carries an epinephrine auto-injector all over the place she goes to guard him. However many can’t afford epinephrine, are lax about carrying it, or don’t notice they’ve a meals allergy till their first response.
She got here up with the thought to make inventory epinephrine out there in public venues, very similar to Automated Exterior Defibrillators (AEDs) are at the moment.
She reached out to her native legislator, NY State Senator Andrew Gounardes, to see how she may make epinephrine extra accessible:
I wish to set up a way of security for many who endure from meals allergy symptoms. I need them to really feel protected and safe when being out in public, I need them to really feel protected. I additionally need them to know that individuals care about their allergy symptoms and that it’s actual, that they’re not alone, and that they don’t must really feel remoted of their expertise.
— Lucia Zaremba
Gounardes agreed:
Households like Lucia’s shouldn’t must reside in concern each time they exit to dinner or an occasion. Anaphylaxis could be lethal, and when Lucia informed me her household’s story, I knew we needed to take motion.
This January, the senator and NY Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal launched S1078A, a invoice that will mandate epinephrine auto-injectors in giant public venues throughout the state.
If handed, the laws would require locations of public meeting, together with stadiums, gymnasiums, indoor and out of doors amphitheaters, live performance halls, and theaters to have inventory epinephrine readily available and mandate the coaching of workers of their use.
We at SnackSafely.com prolong our heartfelt thanks and congratulations to Lucia for her efforts to safeguard her brother and the meals allergy group at giant. It’s folks like her that carry much-needed change to the world, and we recognize her efforts.
We additionally want Senator Gounardes and Assemblywoman Rosenthal success of their efforts to have the laws enacted. We hope it spurs different states to do likewise.
