New York City Basic Life Support Ambulances to Carry Epinephrine
FAI is pleased to announce that in April 2009, the FDNY and the Regional Emergency Services Medical Council of New York City mandated that all basic life-support ambulances (BLS) carry epinephrine auto-injectors. Before this important policy decision was made, only advanced life-support (ALS) ambulances were required to carry the medication. Although some BLS ambulances carried epinephrine on a voluntary basis, others did not.
For the past year, FAI has been advocating for this policy. FAI representatives, including Julie Menin, chairperson of Manhattan Community Board 1, met with officials and spoke at a New York City Council hearing on January 29. Menin is the mother of three young sons with life-threatening food allergies. "According to the FDNY, in 2007 more than 4,900 EMS calls were ALS-level responses to reports of anaphylaxis," Menin wrote in an op-ed in the The New York Daily News. "For these New Yorkers, epinephrine was a lifeline. But for an unknown number of others whose calls were answered by BLS ambulances, no effective treatment was available until they got to the emergency room."
“Providing BLS emergency medical technicians with epinephrine auto-injectors is a simple and cost-effective solution to a serious problem,” said Robert Pacenza, FAI’s executive director. “This is reassuring news for approximately 300,000 New York City residents who suffer from food allergies, as well as the thousands of food-allergic families who visit our city every year.”