For Ammaria

A little girl lives in Heaven now. She used to live in Chesterfield County, Virginia with her family, but she doesn't anymore. My heart feels heavy and the need to share this news is too much not to devote our blog today as her body is released to her parents. As they take their precious 7 year old and bury her way too early.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 (MSG)

 ⁵ Just as you'll never understand
      the mystery of life forming in a pregnant woman,
   So you'll never understand
      the mystery at work in all that God does.

Here at Insanity, I've spoken in great detail of the pain and fear associated with food allergies and what can happen to children such as Ammaria, but today I want to stick to this little girl's story as it is the one that is most important on this day. We will never understand why God decided to take her, but I pray that she did not die in vain. I pray that God will lead those of us with a voice to speak for Ammaria and children like her to say she didn't have to die!
Monday started as any other day at Ammaria's school, Hopkins Elementary in Chesterfield County, VA.  News reports say that emergency crews were called to the school around 2:30 pm. When the EMS crew arrived, Ammaria was in cardiac arrest. By the time they reached the hospital, she was gone.
Her mother is now left with so many questions. It was also reported that the school called Ammaria's mother just before dialing 911. When they told her that her daughter's tongue was swollen and she needed to come pick her up, she told them to call 911. So many questions.
Ammaria's mother said the school had an allergy plan. She also said that when she brought in the child's epinephrine pen, the clinical worker refused to take it, telling her to take it home. It is not known how Ammaria was exposed to something with peanuts. It is not known if the school acted in response to her exposure. It is known that someone messed up somewhere and that without access to life saving medications such as epinephrine Ammaria died. There is no way to sugar coat this. There are parents laying their precious first grader to rest while mine goes to school. There are parents asking why their daughter had to die. They may never know the answer, but every one of us can help protect other children from dying the same painful death. Let me tell you that being there, I know. Ammaria knew she was having an allergic reaction. Ammaria knew she was only getting worse. Ammaria felt the pain and her airway become restricted. Ammaria knew she was going to die.
Right now, the United States Senate has a bill on the table that could save children like Ammaria and those who don't even know they have a life-threatening allergy. The bill is the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, S. 1884. The bill has also been introduced in the House as HR 3627.
While this bill would protect those whose epinephrine auto-injector isn't immediately accessible during a reaction, it also will help save the lives of those who experience an anaphylactic reaction and have no prescribed epipen. Up to 25 percent of all epinephrine administrations that occur in the school setting involve students and adults whose allergy was unknown at the time of the event. S. 1884 will provide incentive for states to enact their own laws allowing school personnel to keep and administer a non-student specific epinephrine auto-injector in case of an emergency.
What if someone you love had a reaction and needed this medication? Seriously? What if? We don't always know that we have an allergy. This bill would at least provide medication in the hands of the school to use in case of an emergency. This bill could have saved Ammaria. This bill could save someone you love.
Contact your Senator to get this bill passed. For those who live in the state of Ohio, this is a direct link to our State Senators http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=OH. Those who do not live in the great state of Ohio can use the same link to access the site to search for their particular state. I encourage all of you to contact your Senators and even the House of Republicans. Please, friends, help me prove that Ammaria did not die in vain.