I had a friend who had an anaphylactic reaction to MRI dye last Monday.  In for an MRI to determine answers for a health issue, she had never before had an anaphylactic reaction to anything and had no food allergies.  Her only previous reaction to anything was a very swollen leg last year after a bee sting.

The scary part to me is what happened when she told the technician she was feeling funny and hit the panic button.  To be fair, MRIs and CAT scans are rather tight spaces and more than one patient has been known to have panic attacks so this was how she was initially treated.  A doctor was called in who took her vitals which appeared to be fine so she was led through breathing exercises to “calm down”.  When she began to have difficulty talking due to a swelling throat and tongue, they then noticed that her back was covered in hives.  This is when she asked, “Can’t you give me something to stop this?”

What followed was 2 doses of Benadryl through her IV which did nothing.  When her face began to swell and she began having difficulty breathing, epinephrine was administered and she was sent to the ER.  Unfortunately, her heart then began having problems due to the low blood pressure accompanying the anaphylactic reaction.  So she was sent to the cardiology department and kept in to determine how much heart damage she sustained.  She will have a follow up in another month with this cardiologist to figure out what the long term effects will be.

Besides a new prescription for an epipen and Reactin, that’s it.  No allergic consultation, no information about what was in the dye that she must now avoid, just the suggestion that if she needs another MRI, she should take a Benadryl first.  Ack!

Needless so say, she’s very shaken and so I’ve talked to her several times since last week to discuss what she needs to do now.   After hearing what happened during the MRI reaction, I get the feeling that the technicians haven’t had much experience with anaphylactic reactions yet when I scanned the internet for information as to what exactly was in the dye, this is apparently not as rare as one might think according to a study I found.

I feel that she came too close to death last week and the trauma was needless if the technicians had been trained to look for signs of anaphylaxis.  The follow up was also pitiful and I’m thankful that I’m able to help her with the next steps to advocate for her own health.  But what if she didn’t have a friend with some background information?  How do you ask what you don’t know you should be asking for?  This incident has certainly highlighted for me that even the medical field has a long way to go and little time to travel that road as our world simply becomes more allergic.