[user104658]

Originally Posted by Snow Angel

Satay sauce smells of peanuts.. it's a peanut based sauce? I can't understand how she mixed the two.
Not having her pen or medical ID with her was silly, poor girl. Mind you if I was the pharmacist I would have done it, in an emergency situation you would think anyone with any knowledge at all would try something to save a life?

It's not really as simple as that. If she was walking still then it wouldn't be obvious that she was within minutes of death - and there's a risk that administering an incorrect dose of medication could kill her.

So the choice is between not giving her something and potentially failing to save a girl who is about to die - OR giving her something and potentially killing a girl who might otherwise not have died. NOW which do you choose? It's an impossible choice, and that's why there are regulations.

The truth is, the family clearly weren't aware enough of how serious an allergy like this can be. If they were, then they wouldn't have risked going out without the medication... they wouldn't have been unaware that satay is nut-based... in fact they probably wouldn't have been eating chinese in the first place (a lot of chinese food is peanut based and there's a high risk of cross-contamination). And, they would have placed her in the recovery position and told her to breathe slowly and calmly, and dialed 999 as soon as she started to react, they wouldn't have been concerned about her walking / running anywhere. They panicked, they didn't know what to do, and they made mistakes. The pharmacist made mistakes too; they should have called an ambulance themselves and stressed the urgency rather than telling the mother to "take her" to hospital.

Not sure if that means that the family are "to blame" for not educating themselves on the severity of the condition... or if it's the fault of the medical professionals who diagnosed the allergy in the first place for not being clear about the very real and very serious risks.

As it stands, I don't think anyone should be thrown under the bus for the tragic outcome of this situation... but certainly not the pharmacist. Imagine the outrage if a pharmacist did administer or provide unprescribed medication in a situation like this, and the person had a reaction to it and died? Everyone would be foaming at the mouth about professional misconduct, demanding them struck off, you'd probably even have some people suggesting they be brought up on manslaughter charges. There HAS to be protocol, it has to be followed, and hastily administering any medication "blind" is never the right choice.