Schools

Mokena Father Donating Allergy Emergency Kits to D159

Brandon Wilson designed EpiPen holding kits especially for schools if a student has a potentially fatal allergic reaction, such as what happened earlier in the month to an 8-year-old Mokena student.

Brandon Wilson used to ask himself what’s with all these food allergies. That is until he and his wife learned the hard way that their daughter Rosemary is allergic to tree nuts.

“One cashew and she went into full anaphylaxis,” Wilson said, while at the Mokena School District 159 meeting Wednesday night. “By the grace of God we had a bottle of Benadryl. That was enough until the ambulance came.”

The Mokena father of two took his experience and invented a kit that would put medicine needed to quickly halt a potentially fatal allergic reaction called epinephrine quickly into the hands of those in need. Similar to automatic external defibrillators and fire extinguishers, Wilson’s Epi-NOW cabinets carry the epinephrine injections called EpiPens, and can easily be opened by anyone.

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He decided to donate $8,000 worth of his Epi-NOW EpiPen and emergency inhaler kits to the school district, after a recent situation where a Mokena student was hospitalized due to a severe food allergy reaction. One small kit is meant for any nearby emergency, and a larger kit called the EpiSHED organizes students’ specified EpiPens with photos and detailed information. Each kit has a lock, but a thin plastic layer can be broken if a key can’t be found.

“The common denominator when there is a fatality, or an incident where it was so close to a fatality it just shakes the community to its core, it’s always because there was no epinephrine, no one could find the epinephrine, no one was trained for anaphylaxis, some other set of preventable circumstances,” Wilson said. “And I’m not talking two years ago. I got a call last week about a near-fatal incident. And we’ve had some challenges in our own district.”

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Just before Wilson spoke in front of the District 159 board and staff Wednesday night, Brian Matejka challenged the board to adopt a stronger allergy policy. Matejka’s 8-year-old daughter Maddie experienced a severe allergic reaction on Nov. 7, when she breathed in peanut dust from another student’s bag of trail mix opened during snack time. The girl had to be taken to Silver Cross Hospital for treatment, according to a Sun Times Media report.

“Make sure those plans are being enforced,” Matejka said Wednesday night. “Our daughter’s life was put in jeopardy once. It’ll never happen again.”

Maddie Matejka’s allergic reaction led D159 Superintendent Omar Castillo, whose own child has severe allergies, to call a roundtable about the issue with parents, teachers and staff. He also sent a letter to the parents reminding them to consider allergies when packing snacks.

Castillo said during the Wednesday meeting that the district is reworking sanitation methods, re-evaluating designated nut-free zones and other efforts to assist the 29 D159 students with severe allergies.

“When we met with Mr. Wilson in September, we saw how proactive we can be,” Castillo said.

Wilson first started brain storming the Epi-NOW cabinets after he and his wife switched Rosemary from a private school with a nut-free policy to a public school. He said he couldn’t get his mind around all of the epinephrine in the school being only available in the nurse’s office.

“You’re talking about 650 students in a massive facility, with multiple wings and stairwells,” Wilson said Wednesday night. “Anaphylaxis can cause death in 20 minutes in its most severe form. It’s not to say the first time you ever see a child have a reaction to food it will be fatal in 20 minutes, but allergy parents live in a constant state of anxiety that the next reaction will be worse than the first.”

Access is one of the “failure points” Wilson said he found while researching cases of anaphylaxis as he designed his kits. Another is making sure students and teachers are also trained in EpiPen use, not just the school nurses.

“Even with the most optimal school nursing program, a school could be open before or after classes, or events over the weekend,” Wilson said.

Wilson pointed out that during the school board meeting, a Cub Scout group was holding an event in the Mokena Elementary cafeteria, just outside of the board meeting.

The Epi-NOW and Epi-SHED units will go into all three D159 buildings.

“Nothing will give me more pleasure than to see a very thorough anaphylaxis prevention policy here in Mokena,” Wilson said.

He received a standing ovation.

Learn more about Wilson’s Epi-NOW kits.

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