After Emergency on Plane, Bristol Borough Woman Advocates for EpiPens on Flights

Aboard an American Airlines flight high above the Pennsylvania countryside, Ashley Spencer felt the familiar tingling in her throat and hives well up on her skin. She didn't feel well after she ate some kettle chips, and would soon realize she was having an anaphylactic crisis.

Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction that can lead to difficulty breathing and death. Epinephrine is a hormone and medication used to treat the reaction.

Before Spencer, of Bristol Borough, could get back to her seat to get her EpiPen with its lifesaving injection of epinephrine, she collapsed on the plane's floor. When she came to, she asked for the injectible before blacking out again.

Luckily, two doctors were aboard the flight and injected her with both EpiPens she carried with her as well as more epinephrine one of the doctors had.

The flight made an emergency landing in Pittsburgh where Ashley spent most of that day in May 2018 in a hospital before continuing her journey to the Cleveland Clinic for a clinical trial treatment for her rare, autoimmune disease that causes inflamed blood vessels.

Her emergency landing made headlines, and spurred her to advocate for change.

On Thursday, Spencer and Dr. Jonthan Spergel, chief of the allergy section at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, headed to Washington to meet about 20 members of the U.S. Senate.

They and members of the Coalition for Lifesaving Epinephrine Access and Responsibility (CLEAR) hope that Congress and President Donald Trump will enact legislation requiring airlines to stock epinephrine auto-injectors on board commercial flights.

Spencer, 29, said the meeting went well. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey had representatives from his staff at the meeting.

"It was very informative and there was a lot discussed about the need for epinephrine auto-injectors on planes," Spencer said.

"Epinephrine auto-injectors on airplanes just make common sense," Spergel said. "It saves lives with low cost."

The epinephrine auto-injectors, called EpiPens by the most popular brand's producer, Pfizer, are easy to use injections that can save the life of someone going into anaphalaxic shock. Advocates want it made law that airlines need to have them in their emergency medical kits.

"When seconds can mean the difference between life and death in a person who suffers anaphylaxis, particularly in-flight when the passenger is thousands of feet in the atmosphere with no immediate recourse to a hospital or first responder, this action is urgently needed," CLEAR states.

There's another reason as well. There is an on-going shortage of EpiPens available. Pfizer and the company that prices and markets the pens, Mylan, announced jointly in June that they extended the expiration date by four months on EpiPens, but not on EpiPen Jrs., which are used to treat young children.

"EpiPen is a product that requires a highly complex and technical manufacturing and assembly process," the Pfizer announcement stated. The pharmaceutical firm said its subsidiary that makes the EpiPens, Meridian Medical Technologies Inc., "continues to experience manufacturing challenges. ... We place great importance on the consistent availability of EpiPen for everyone who needs it and understand the frustration this ongoing situation continues to pose for patients, caregivers and schools."

Spencer said that some people who should carry epinephrine auto-injectors aren't doing so, either because of the supply shortage or the prohibitive cost.

Online prices have ranged from more than $100 to more than $600.

Spencer said airline emergency kits may carry epinephrine for injection since it can also be used for heart disorder patients but it needs to be given by someone with knowledge of how to administer it, preferably a medical professional, while the auto-injectibles can be injected by anyone in an emergency.

The issue has gained importance, CLEAR notes, because there are now 32 million Americans, including 5.6 million children under age 18, with food allergies.

According to FARE, a private organization that supports food allergy research and education, between 2007 and 2016, medical procedures to treat anaphylaxis from food allergies increased by 380%, according to CLEAR.

While many allergies are first noticed in young children, Spencer said hers developed after she took chemotherapy and steroid treatments for the autoimmune disease that struck her as a teenager, eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis vasculitis or EGPA for short.

It caused her severe asthma and limb paralysis. She praised St. Mary's Rehabilitation Center for helping her get back the use of her legs.

At 23, she was eating a peanut-butter and chocolate candy she had eaten many times before, and suddenly developed an allergic reaction. She has been hospitalized multiple times since then for the life-threatening condition, including times when she needing a ventilator to keep her breathing while she recovered, she said.

Spencer is staying in Cleveland where she now is being treated at the Cleveland Clinic with a new drug that seems to be helping. She's hoping it will help her allergies as well. Her immune system is so suppressed, she said, that she cannot work. And she has a blood clot near her heart that has required the use of blood thinners.

Still she's trying to help other people.

"In an emergency, it's all about time," she said.

She realizes how lucky she was to be on a flight with two doctors.

"They saved my life. Hopefully, I can use the platform to save others' lives by getting EpiPens aboard all planes."

———

©2019 Bucks County Courier Times, Levittown, Pa.

Visit Bucks County Courier Times, Levittown, Pa. at www.buckscountycouriertimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.