Published July 23, 2024

BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

A St. Lazare man has a message for his friends and neighbours: Your local pharmacist can save your life.

Oh, and you should think about carrying an epi-pen.

That is what 63-year-old Michael Blakey said after he survived a harrowing ordeal July 12, a quiet Friday when he was preparing his boat to go fishing with his son for the first time this summer. As he prepared the craft, he unknowingly disturbed a hive of wasps that had established itself under the seat of his boat. Before he knew it, he had been stung several times.

Within minutes, hives broke out on his feet and in his armpits, his lips were swelling. He popped a Benadryl, a popular antihistamine, he had in the house. But that seemed to have little effect.

“I needed an epi-pen,” Blakey said, referring to an auto-injector device that deliver a small dose of epinephrine, a medication to treat allergic emergencies, often referred to anaphylactic shock.

Instead of calling 911, he jumped in his car and raced down to the Pharmaprix outlet on Ste. Angelique Road. That is where pharmacist Peter Hanna immediately used an epi-pen to help ease Blakey’s reaction, then, he called 911.

At this time, Blakey described his breathing as laboured. He said he felt “odd, itchy, panicky” and admitted he was scared. St. Lazare first-responders were on the scene in minutes, followed by an Urgences Santé ambulance. He was monitored at the store for a while, where it was established that the oxygen level is his blood had dropped dangerously low.

Blakey was taken to the Lakeshore General Hospital in Pointe Claire, but by then, the swelling of his lips and tongue was subsiding. He was monitored in the emergency ward for about four hours before he was released, and returned home.

Hospital officials said he “made a very smart move” by rushing to the pharmacy, he said. Hesitating or waiting for an ambulance to arrive could have resulted in a much more serious outcome, he believes.

Now, Blakey keeps three epi-pens with him – one at work, one at home and one in his car.

“People need to be prepared for this,” he said, explaining how the allergic shock came on so fast and could have been deadly, as his airways became obstructed.

He returned to the pharmacy the following week to thank Hanna. He credits the pharmacist’s quick actions with saving his life.

Oh, and the pharmacy even picked up the cost of the ambulance.

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