Msmiggins, you are wrong if you think every allergic child has had memory of what an allergic reaction feels like. For many the first reaction for e.g peanut starts at a very young age, there areyoung teens walking around with peanut allergy with no memory of that last reaction. They are the ones who are at higher risk than the child who has multiple allergies to common foods.
These children often have asthma, which was more of problem during early years but as lungs grow bigger during teen years this becomes less of an issue. But they still have asthma and still have a potentially life threatening allergy. and they dont carry their auto injectors, or possibly inhalers with them.
There are teenagers who have experience of mild reactions when young, and have never seen an immunologist for expert advice, who then go on to have severe reaction during these hormone filled, stressful years.
Teenagers who have been prescribed auto injectors frequently forget to carry them.
Or they are kept in the medical cabinet at home
or are not carried around anymore as they havent needed it for years
or some people dont bother carrying auto injectors 'because they are very careful'
Anaphylaxis is an accident that happens because multiple things that can go wrong do. being careful isnt enough.
For some, its a brand new allergy perhaps they thought last mild one was something else, but today that teen body has decided that today is the day for anaphylaxis.
auto injectors only come in 2 different doses, depending on weight, for severe reactions 1 auto injector is sometimes not enough. so accidently stabbing someone with 1 is not going to cause any harm to someone not with anaphylaxis.
I have personally met school nurses who have bundled off teenagers with anaphylaxis with the hope that they get there alive, as they didnt have auto injectors on them. One had never been informed by parents of the medical condition. For others it was the first ever severe reaction.
We also need to ensure that school nurses, like teachers are always trained to use auto injectors and recognise severe allergy symptoms. As this is not always the case.
I agree that using another childs auto injector is not a safe practice, however using a generic one for the rare occasions you need it is.
I also support the generic inhaler in schools for the asthma deaths, as we are still loosing many to asthma (and possibly undiagnosed anaphylaxis that looks like asthma) in this country.
being a teacher does mean taking on parental responsibility, and that means if you accept a child with medical problems you take on that role.
Its also worth considering that many GP's, are medically trained but wouldnt have the faintest idea how to use a epi pen or auto injector for anaphylaxis. However in today's society, anyone who works with children will more than likely have more training in this area than them.
We live in a crazy allergy world, and its not just my own kids, I have seen the double wardrobe sized cabinet of epi pens in my kids senior school.
We need a generic asthma inhaler and auto injector. We need them in senior schools /university and in large workplace settings as the first wave of allergic kids are now adults and are at risk of anaphylaxis.