Governor Revises EpiPen Law Prompted By Death Of Suburban Teenager
ELMHURST, Ill. (AP) -- Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed a law protecting health professionals who provide police officers with life-saving epinephrine auto injections.
Rauner on Tuesday signed an expansion of what is known as Annie LeGere's Law.
Annie LeGere died in August 2015 at 13-years-old after a severe allergic reaction during a sleepover.
Her mother, Shelly LeGere, has been an operating room nurse for more than two decades, but she wasn't prepared when her daughter went into anaphylactic shock.
The 13-year-old, who had no known allergies, asked her mom to pick her up from a slumber party because she wasn't feeling well.
LeGere told CBS in 2016 that in five minutes it took for her to get there, her daughter passed out and was barely breathing.
LeGee's reaction likely was due to something she ate.
The original law provided legal liability protection to police officers who administer so-called EpiPen injections to those suffering allergic reactions.
The new law protects doctors and others who write standing EpiPen prescriptions for police agencies to carry them.
Rauner's office reports that the nonprofit Food Allergy Research & Education estimates that nearly 15 million people in the U.S. suffer from food allergies.
Six million are children.
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