Andrew Laidlaw knew it was serious.
His mother, Cheryl, had just stepped on a bee as the two walked on the beach Thursday, and he could tell just by how she looked that she was in trouble.
Although he had never seen his mother go into anaphylactic shock before, the 10-year-old Newport Beach boy had heard about her deadly allergy, which had caused his mother to collapse and stop breathing three times before.
He realized that his mother could die if she wasn’t treated immediately, and he ran as fast as he could down the sandy beach toward the family’s 47th Street home to get his mom’s medicine.
“I was pretty scared,” Andrew said. “I knew I had to get back to the house fast and get her EpiPen because I knew it was serious.”
Anaphylactic shock is a very severe reaction that can kill a person if it is not treated immediately.
Cheryl was walking down the beach with Andrew and her dog watching her two older sons surf when she stepped on the bee, she said. Her heart started pounding rapidly.
Andrew said he had never seen such a terrified look on his mom’s face. She cried out and then instructed him to find her purse and get her EpiPen, an emergency syringe of epinephrine.
Soon after he left, a Newport Beach lifeguard truck pulled up and offered to drive Cheryl home.
They intercepted Andrew, who was running from the house, EpiPen in hand. He gave the syringe to his mom, who injected herself right away.
“I had never used the EpiPen before, and I really didn’t have any faith in it, but it worked immediately,” Cheryl said.
After yesterday’s scare, though, she recommends it for anyone with severe allergies.
ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.
