Dr. Jerry Williams of Urgent Care 24/7 discusses allergic reactions. Dr. Williams wanted to talk to you about something that happened to him personally, and how he ended up saving a guy's life out in the field one day, actually, he was at a convenience store at the beach. So if you're watching this video and someone yourself or someone you love is having an allergic reaction, if they're having trouble breathing dial 911 immediately and get them to an emergency room, or medical facility as quickly as possible, or get them to a fire department or EMS unit as quickly as possible, if you're close to that, because if you're losing the ability to breathe, you do need to jump on that problem immediately and get professional treatment.

Now, if you've dialed 911, let me tell you as quickly as possible, get a dose of Benadryl in the patient, 50 milligrams as quickly as possible in an adult. They are given an age and size appropriate dose as a child with children's been a drill and then also give either famotidine which is Pepcid AC, or Tagamet over the counter anti inflammatory, which are drugs that are in the classification of h2 blockers, their stomach acid secretion medications. If there's any question of airway involvement, when what we call an anaphylaxis type, severe allergic reaction down on one one, and get to a healthcare provider, or get an EMS, paramedics or ACLs, ambulance service to you or the patient as quickly as possible, you don't want to risk delaying treatment when it comes to severe allergic reactions.

Now, just a quick story about what happened to Dr. Williams. Some years ago, he was at the beach, and was at a convenience store and just walked out of the store and a lady pulled up in a car. She jumped out screaming that her boyfriend was having an allergic reaction in the car. Dr. Williams ran around to his side of the car on the passenger side and he was literally gasping for air. He asked if she dialed 911 and she said that she had but that the ambulance was off the island and another ambulance was trying to get onto the island and we were out at the beach in Savannah Georgia at Tybee Island. In that moment, there, because of bad traffic and the summer and lots of beach goers they were caught in a position and that moment where we actually didn't have any ambulances on the island. Very briefly. Terrible timing, but that's what happened.

Dr. Williams ran into the convenience store and grabbed Benadryl and in that case, he actually got Zantac, which is not on the market anymore but it's a type two histamine receptor blocker for acid secretion. He very quickly gave him a large dose of Benadryl and he was able to get that down and gave him a large dose of the Zantac, h2 blocker, stomach acid medication. Interestingly, by the time the ambulance got to the gentleman, he was largely resolved and was able to breathe effectively. They took him to the hospital anyway for him to get checked out which was completely appropriate. This guy was literally taking his last breaths and by the time he got both doses of medication in him, and but fortunately, they worked fast enough. Over the next 10 to 15 minutes, he showed significant improvement and he actually made it so not a great situation.

If you find yourself in that situation, and in fact Dr. Williams carries it in his everyday carry first aid kit, I Benadryl and Famotidine tablets, just in case something like that ever happens again, actually have them on his everyday carry on him all the time, just just a few tablets but enough to treat a patient should a symptom like that occur.

Dr. Williams hope you found this little talk on allergy allergic reactions. useful. Look forward to talking to you again soon with one of our medical chats.

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