Boston doctor urges FAA to change EpiPen policy after terrifying mid-flight reaction
A Boston doctor is trying to make a change onboard commercial flights after a terrifying allergic reaction.
Lindsey Ulin, a resident physician in the Department of Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, was traveling from Phoenix to Austin on a Southwest Airlines flight when she realized she was developing sudden anaphylaxis for the first time.
“I developed hives all over my face and my chest, then I suddenly felt short of breath, which quickly got worse, and I could feel my throat closing,” she said.
Knowing she had limited time, Ulin paged the flight attendant to ask for an EpiPen but learned they did not carry them on board.
The FAA said it requires many items to be carried in emergency medical kits, including epinephrine.
But that epinephrine is only required in vial form to be administered with a syringe and not an auto-injector. That process, Ulin says, requires many steps and the dosage and the placement is critical.
“When it's in that form, there's no instructions, there's no way to know. So, all of these steps which the average passenger — unless they've had medical training — is probably not going to know,” she said.
Luckily, there was one person with medical training on board. A physician from Texas, who administered just enough to keep Ulin stable until she could be met by EMS upon landing about 30 minutes later.
“When that physician showed up, just the sense of relief that came over me,” she said.
Ulin said there are so many ways her story could have ended differently. She said all airlines should carry EpiPens and wants the FAA to reconsider its current exemptions for medical kits — and require all airlines to have epinephrine in auto-injector form on board.
“Having to depend on a medical professional being on your flight or crowd-sourcing for life-saving supplies is not an emergency preparedness strategy,” she said. “I was lucky with how my story ended, but somebody else won’t be.”
Ulin sent a letter to the physician thanking him for saving her life. She said she has not heard back and hopes he receives it.
WCVB has reached out to Southwest for comment but has not heard back.