Special to The Leader

 

Over the last several weeks our community has been blessed with people and organizations reaching out providing donations of all kinds to our families, friends and coworkers as we begin to recover from the devastation created by Hurricane Harvey. Even with all that has been provided it seems that we still had a need that was not being met. It could be because no one had thought about it or knew how to make it happen until several groups came together determined to solve it.

When the LCM schools district began classes it was soon discovered that several of the student’s EpiPens (or other auto-injecting epinephrine devices) were lost in the flood waters of Harvey. Other families had suffered such devastation that they were not able to purchase the EpiPen needed for the new school year to use in the event of a potentially life threatening allergic reaction (anaphylaxis).

Some of these students have the potential for anaphylaxis if they are exposed to nuts, eggs, dairy, wheat, shellfish, bees and wasps just to name a few of the potential allergens. For some the reaction could occur if they ingest the allergen while others may have a reaction from either inhaling it or simply touching it. EpiPens are administered to treat these reactions.

Kelly Meadows RN, LCM Director of Health Services and the LCI school nurse reached out to several civic organizations to see if they might be able to help address this need. Her suggestion was to create a voucher system working with a couple of the area pharmacies where the families in our community could go and exchange a voucher for the prescribed EpiPen/auto-injecting epinephrine devices for their child and the cost would be covered by one of the supporting organizations. The auto-injecting epinephrine devices require prescriptions so the families are responsible for obtaining a current prescription from their health care provider. If this is a problem and assistance is needed other organizations have offered to address that need as well.

It is unknown how many families will actually take advantage of this effort, but the Little Cypress Lions and the Orange Lions Club have each pledged $2,000 to fund the EpiPen Voucher Program.

The Service League of Orange has also pledged their support of the program.

The Vouchers have already been offered to three families in the Little Cypress-Mauriceville district. Walgreens in Orange is the only pharmacy set up to accept the vouchers at this time, but it is hoped that other pharmacies in the area will soon be added to the list.

 

Because of the lifesaving potential of the program, the decision was made to open it to any family with a student in an Orange County school that needs this assistance.

Anyone interested in this program or those who have questions should contact Kelly Meadows at (409) 886-4245 ext. 5 or kmeadows@lcmcisd.org . She will be working with area school nurses throughout Orange County to help ensure that the students that need the Vouchers for EpiPens (auto-injecting epinephrine devices) for school receive them.