Allergic reaction and employment

[brettjdevries]

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

I am from Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. I am presently awaiting the start of Flemings Paramedic program. I would just like to inquire into a specific ancient medical issue that may effect my future employment as a paramedic. When I was 5 years old, I suffered an allergic reaction to a MMR booster (measels, mumps, rubella) that left me temporarily paralysed for 2 days. My question is, would this reaction effect my possible employment as a paramedic?

Any expect opinion would be much appreciated.

Brett

[island emt]

Not as long as you don't get a MMR vaccine again.

Did they ever figure out was caused the reaction in your system?

[MikeEMT]

Doubtful that it would effect your job prospects. Here we have waivers for workers that can't get required shots (usually used for Hep . I would be cautious with the MMR and maybe speak to your doctor about it. Maybe they have an alternative they can give you or something.

We have several EMT's at my company that have serious allergic reactions and several have had to use the onboard epi pen on themselves due to anaphylaxis.

[Kaisu]

Not sure if I'm an expert but we had a kid (EMT) with a severe anaphylactic reaction to some nuts in the lunch. Gave him epi, A & A and solumedrol as well as transported to the hospital.

Kid's still working.

[mobey]

Potentially yes.

I was not allowed on practicum until I proved that MMR were up to date, and TB test was either neg, or inactive.

Talk to the school.

[BEorP]

This is definitely something you will need to investigate and find a reliable answer to before beginning school (more reliable than we can give you on here). To work in Ontario, I had to prove through blood tests that I had received the MMR vaccine and it worked (I suspect that this is dictated my the Ministry of Health, but I don't have the time at the moment to try to look this up).

It turned out for me that my immunity was actually not that great to one of them so I had to go back and be vaccinated again. So my concern for you would not be about a specific allergic reaction but rather that you have immunity to these things. I don't know whether there is any flexibility in this or what your other options might be in terms of immunization.

You also mentioned paralysis. If there are lingering effects from this that will affect your ability to lift, then that will be an even bigger deal than everything else. Sometimes we don't think too much about that part of the job when entering a paramedic program, but it is one thing we do on nearly every call. If you can't lift, you can't be a paramedic.

As mobey says though, get in touch with your program coordinator (Mary Osinga, 705-749-5530 ext. 1733 or mosinga@flemingc.on.ca). Don't trust anything that any of us have told you here. Even when getting information from Mary, be absolutely sure she is giving you genuine answers that can be backed up with documentation and if not then seek answers elsewhere. Something that could prevent you from having a career after two hard years of school is important to figure out now. I'm glad that you're trying to do this!

Good luck! And congratulations on getting into a paramedic program.