Brooke Fulham owes her life to quick-thinking employees at a CVS pharmacy in Burke, VA.
Ms Fulham was picking up her son’s prescription Monday morning when she increasingly felt the symptoms of an allergic reaction that she suspects was caused by allergy shots she received elsewhere.
She picks up the story:
I get to my car, and I actually get in it, and then I opened up the visor, and that’s when I looked at my face, and my face was completely swollen, my eyes were almost swollen shut.”
She could not breathe or swallow, so she grabbed her epinephrine auto-injector.
All I thought was, ‘well if I don’t get somewhere where there’s a lot of people, no one is going to know what’s happening. Nobody is going to understand. I don’t want to die in my car, I don’t want to die in the street.’
She re-entered the pharmacy and subsequently passed out on the floor, where three staff members administered her auto-injector and tended to her while waiting for the ambulance. She later thanked Sangita Sah, Emily Bui, and manager Bao-Tram Kuch for saving her life.
“I was not panicked,” Sah told Fulham. “I think the timing was good that you came [inside].”
Bui said Fulham was strong despite knowing that her life was in jeopardy.
“Her heart was there for Christ, and I knew he was going to be taking care of her,” said Jan Walker White, Fulham’s mother who joined her daughter to say thank you to Sah and Bui.
Sah insisted that helping was part of the job, but Fulham thought they should be recognized to “a life saved.”
Said Fulham: “I was in good hands.”
Here is a DC News Now report of the incident:
We are thankful Ms Fulham survived the incident and congratulate the women who saved her. They are true heroes.
We remind our readers that epinephrine is the only drug that can halt and reverse the progression of anaphylaxis, but the earlier it is administered upon onset of symptoms, the better the outcome.
Although this outcome was a good one, it could have turned out differently had Ms Fulham passed out before reaching the store. We do not believe it was in her best interest to delay the administration of epinephrine until she returned to the pharmacy. Instead, she should have immediately injected herself, then entered the store for help.
As we always do, we urge all those who have been prescribed epinephrine to take two devices — auto-injectors or nasal sprays — along everywhere, every time. The life you save may be your own!
