New York City officials are changing medical emergency protocol after a toddler died earlier this month.
The family of Elijah Silvera, 3, says he suffered anaphylactic shock after an adult at his pre-school gave him a grilled cheese sandwich. The family says he was severely allergic to dairy and the center’s staff was aware of his allergy.
This topic of serious food allergies is one I never had to personally deal with until working with young children.
We have children in our program who have severe food allergies and require an EpiPen. My staff and myself have a school emergency plan and we are trained in the protocol. If we ever have to use the EpiPen, we administer it, call 911 and then call the parent and at least one teacher and or administrator must stay with the child until their legal guardian shows up.
Two years ago a child in our program was given yogurt made with dairy. The teacher who gave it to him wasn’t his regular teacher. His photo was clearly on the allergy list, which is posted in every classroom. That teacher failed to check it. He immediately went into anaphylactic shock.
He had to be given two shots, one by the teacher and another by the mother when she arrived at the scene. He did go to the hospital where they continued to monitor him.
In order to prevent a senseless tragedy such as the one this article speaks about, ALL teachers must make it a point to know who has mild to severe allergies in their center. It’s a matter of life or death. All teacher should check their lists daily, incase there are any new updates to the list. Every teacher should be trained and certified in CPR and First Aid. Everyone should know if a child has an EpiPen at the school for such emergencies.
This scenario can happen to anyone at anytime and the only way to prevent it, is to be prepared and know the students in one’s program.