Thunderstorm Asthma

[Catherine]

I know parents here have children who suffer from asthma.

A rare event occurred in Melbourne on Monday night know as thunderstorm asthma. Monday had been a very hot day, 34c in central Melbourne and higher in other parts of the State. When change hit in early evening. Hundreds cases asthma resulted emergency calls for ambulances.

One questions being now is should first kits contain ventolin?


http://www.allergy.org.au/patients/asthma-and-allergy/thunderstorm-asthma

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/d...ma-more-deaths-predicted-20161122-gsv52a.html

 

[Farmwife]

Interesting!

 

[my little penguin]

if the first aid kits had ventolin and epi pens that would be the best :dance:
If the ambulances had epipen or equivalent in them they can be used for both allergic reaction and asthma
Before portable inhalers they used to use epi pens for asthma attacks .
Also most docs here stress the importance of always carrying your ventolin on your person
Both kids have "spi belts" that are worn outside the home with a set of epipens and ventolin always .

 

[kimmidwife]

in the US all asthma patients have emergency inhalers and many have nebulizers at home for more severe attacks.

 

[Catherine]

What happened in Melbourne was not a normal asthma event. There were 6 times the normal number of calls for ambulances.

I know personally two people who had there first asthma attack on Monday night. Up to half those who called triple zero were not dx with asthma or hadn't asthma attack since childhood. What all this people appear to have in common is they have hay fever.

As of today there have been five deaths and 6 people remain in intensive care with four in a critical condition.

 

[Clash]

After seeing your post I searched and read article about this type of event! Crazy! What a freak occurrence. Awful that there were deaths related to this.

 

[my little penguin]

So sorry to hear about the deaths
We were told when the kids were little as was my dh
That asthma never goes away even if it's calm and just like food allergies to always be prepared with albuerol 24/7
It's been years since any random attacks due to maintenance meds but a good reminder to always have albuterol on your person

Not sure why the ambulance wouldn't have carried nebulizer with albuterol even if they did not have epipens or inhalers with albuterol
I do know here the allergist give warnings when the pollen count is extremely high since they see more cases -just not the same extent that happened there

We were also told in a pinch while heading to the ER
That caffeine in tea coke pepsi coffe etc ... could help some

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0010864/


Hope everyone heals quickly and the ambulance services get the proper meds

 

[Catherine]

Not sure why the ambulance wouldn't have carried nebulizer with albuterol even if they did not have epipens or inhalers with albuterol

Most of the deaths occurred because ambulance awaiting time were too long. Ambulances were only responding to critical calls. It was one those rare times when it was better to driving to ER.

Hospital emergency department had queues into their car park with security giving out ventolin. Hospitals were ring chemists to source ventolin. Private hospital who don't normal have emergency department opened to the public.

Greater Melbourne is a city spread over a area of 9900 sq m. Ambulance just could get to all the people need them at once.

If you have hay fever, whether you have asthma or not asthma you need a asthma plan. Especially if you a grass allergy (rye). You need to have ventolin on hand. Well that the new advice being given there.:ysmile:

 

[my little penguin]

Yikes ! so the private hospitals can turn people away in an emergency!!!!
Wow!
No emergency department here is allowed to turn you away
They have to get the patient stable then they can transfer to a hospital that covers uninsured etc...

 

[Clash]

I think I read somewhere that only 10-13% of private hospitals in Australia have ERs. They operate more like same day surgery or overnight surgery places. So I think she's saying the private hospitals who dont have ERs served ER needs due to the size of the health event.

 

[Catherine]

Clash is right, I talking about private hospitals without emergency departments.

All our public hospitals provide free care. Our private hospital are usually very specialised.

 

[Tesscorm]

What a scary event! I've never heard of anything like this! I certainly hope you don't have this occur again any time soon!

 

[Susan2]

The death toll from the thunderstorm asthma event in Victoria is now eight. The police and fire brigade were also used as emergency vehicles to take people to hospital - more than 8,500 people attended emergency departments that night with respiratory problems. A lot pharmacies also stayed open or reopened and rushed any spare albuterol inhalers to the hospitals, which ran out very quickly.

 

[CarolinAlaska]

The death toll from the thunderstorm asthma event in Victoria is now eight. The police and fire brigade were also used as emergency vehicles to take people to hospital - more than 8,500 people attended emergency departments that night with respiratory problems. A lot pharmacies also stayed open or reopened and rushed any spare albuterol inhalers to the hospitals, which ran out very quickly.

I have never heard of that. It sounds very frightening.