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| Legislation Would Require Schools to Stock Epi-Pens |
(IRN) -- Illinois school kids would have easier access to the anti-allergy drug epinephrine, under a bill which has passed the Illinois House. Schools would be allowed -- as they are not now -- to have an epi-pen in the nurse’s office.
Epi-pens are life-saving devices used to inject epinephrine into someone experiencing a severe allergic reaction.
"Current law only allows epi-pens to be used in our schools if the student supplies the pen themselves," said State Rep. Chris Nybo (R-Lombard), the sponsor. "So what our bill will allow is it will allow schools, if they want to, if they choose to, to have a general supply of epi-pens on site that they can use in certain limited situations."
Nybo says recent incidents in which students have died as a result of an allergic reaction is what inspired the bill. He says his bill, which applies only to kindergarten through 12th grade, will allow the medically trained to use their professional judgment in the case of an emergency.
"The bill will allow school nurses to use and to have a general pen that they can administer when, in their professional judgment, based on their training, they see that a child is having anaphylactic reaction, or an allergic reaction, but that child may not have been particularly diagnosed with allergies," he said.
Nybo says Attorney General Lisa Madigan is behind the measure, and he's hopeful the legislation will pass the Illinois Senate.
H.B. 3294 passed the Illinois House 113-0-1.
(Illinois Radio Network) |
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| 04 25 11 by Newsroom |
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