Danita LaShelle Jones, an HAE caregiver advocate, shares how she communicates the urgency of hereditary angioedema with emergency room teams to help ensure her daughter receives timely care. Read her column, “From the Caregiver’s HAErt.”
Transcript
One of the things that we try to ensure in case we meet a new medical team, especially if it’s at the ER when it comes to treating Ladybug with urgency, is just to make them aware that she has hereditary angioedema and that this particular disease, when she is flaring, is time sensitive.
I want to make sure that they are aware that it is important that as soon as we arrive at that ER, that she is seen immediately or within the next 20 minutes so that medicine can be ordered.
Oftentimes it’s a quick elevator pitch explaining what HAE is, why it’s necessary for them to treat her right away, and why they need to take it seriously.
Fortunately, we live in a city where they know us at the hospital where she goes to her frequents often, so we haven’t had to do that much. But every once in a while, when there’s a new staff or a new turnover of doctors, that is a conversation that we have to have.
