THE MOTHER OF a teenage girl who died on O’Connell street after suffering an allergic reaction, is now campaigning for EpiPens to be made more widely available.
Fourteen-year-old Emma Sloan died on 18 December 2013 after mistaking satay sauce for curry sauce in a Chinese restaurant.
Her body reacted to the peanuts in the sauce and she died within 20 minutes.
Her mother, Caroline, ran to the nearest pharmacy to get an EpiPen injection that would have saved her daughter’s life but she was refused because she didn’t have a prescription with her.
I was refused the pen. There was no assistance offered.
Caroline was told to bring her daughter to a hospital emergency department instead.
Caroline ran to the car park to get her car and Emma was with her aunt on O’Connell street but the teenager collapsed on the road and by the time Caroline returned from the car park Emma was dead.
I never even got to say goodbye to her.
Emma’s last words were “I’m not going to make it.”
Allergy
Caroline spoke on TV3′s Ireland AM and said that she never realised that Emma’s allergy to peanuts could be fatal.
She explained that when Emma was 7 and 11 she had reactions to peanuts and that her lips swelled but that was it.
She also told the broadcaster that Emma had asthma and always carried her inhaler around but that they were never told about the dangers of her allergy to peanuts.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland said it is “continuing to investigate the circumstances around the Emma Sloan tragedy and it would not be appropriate to comment further while that continues.”
Campaign
Caroline is now campaigning for a change in the law which would allow EpiPens to be made available in schools, crèches and restaurants.
Emma has lost her voice in this world so we need to be her voice now.
Over 5,000 people have signed the online petition which can be accessed through ‘Emma’s Voice’ on Facebook.
The petition aims:
Caroline said that “It’s so important that this never ever happens again.
As beautiful as she was, when I close my eyes all I can see is her lying on that slab in Temple Street and having to identify her body to the guards.
“It’s just beyond belief and beyond anything we thought could happen in our lives.”
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