Are vaccines considered 'emergency' medical treatment? What do you write on emergency treatment...

[allnaturalmom]

We have a religious exemption and I am worried that if I sign this card giving consent for emergency medical treatment that the attending physician could take that to mean consent for administering vaccines. In an emergency situation, I would guess that would include tetanus vaccine if there was injury.

With an exemption already on file, wouldn't the school nurse be responsible for making sure that it is known that we have an exemption? Especially since in the next sentence it is stating that I give permission for medical information to be disclosed/shared w/staff who work directly w/my child.

Do/did you sign for consent for you dc? The form needs to go back to school and I don't know what to do? I'm afraid if I write something in, it may call unnecessary attention to the situation. Also, aren't grade school children usually considered 'up-to-date' on all their vax's so would this not even come up?

UGH.... Pulling my hair out here!!
What do you mamas write on these forms?
tia!!!

[MeepyCat]

We vax, and I'm not opposed to my child receiving a tetanus shot in the event of injury, but if there was any medical treatment I knew I didn't consent to, I would not rely on the school nurse (or on random school employee sent to ER with child because the actual nurse is busy or unavailable) to either be familiar enough with the content of my kid's file to refuse vaccines on my behalf, or to remember to grab the whole thing and bring it to the ER with the kid. If she did grab the whole file, I would not count on her to review it in it's entirety at the ER or on the way. When I was a kid, one school nurse was shared between three schools in one district, and dealt with something like 800 kids. It's simply not possible for one person to stay on top of every detail about that many, even assuming she's on school grounds when the hypothetical emergency occurs.

So I would write something on the form like, "We do not vaccinate for religious reasons and we refuse consent for vaccination during emergency medical treatment."

Yeah, it is extra attention to the situation, but the consent form is the ONE form you can be even vaguely assured that the ER will see.

[13Sandals]

No vaccine is an 'emergency' treatment. Protection takes days to weeks to develop. However, I don't count on hospital staff to know this and with any wound - tetanus is going to be on their checklist. Whether or not your child receives it would largely depend on the receiving staff of the hospital. If my son did receive a vaccine as part of 'emergency treatment', I wouldn't hesitate to call a lawyer.

I don't think there is any fool proof way to prevent this scenario - but I certainly do want my son to receive emergency treatment if he needs it. I sign the form and put in huge letters at the bottom, "NO VACCINATION UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES - religious exemption" I also make sure every contact on our emergency form knows our situation with vax so if they are reached first they can advocate for our child until we can get there.

Make your wishes known and hope for the best.

[bobandjess99]

In general, no, but I do think that in MOST medical peoples minds, the tetanus shot *IS* considered emergency treatment, so we are very careful to write in bold that we refuse treatment. But, I can guarantee there wil NEVER be a time they can't reach me.
I think I wrote something "we consent to immediate lifesaving and pain treatment ONLY, and NEVER any immunizations"
However...in an emergency? I don't think they'd even look at the slip, and if she did get shipped off to the ER because say, she stepped on a nail on the playground? I' ve no doubt they woudl DTaP her before I could get there.
It REALLY scares me.

[Fyrestorm]

I send my DD off to school everyday with a medic alert bracelet that says "No Tetanus Toxoid" just to be safe!

DTaP is the only thing I would be concerned about since they consider it emergency medicine. Even though we all know that if there was an actual injury and they were actually worried about tetanus, they would offer TIG since a DTap would be completely useless for the current injury.

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm

I send my DD off to school everyday with a medic alert bracelet that says "No Tetanus Toxoid" just to be safe!
.

So clever! But how do you get one? Don't you need a MD's note to get one or can you just order one off the internet??

[Fyrestorm]

Originally Posted by Marnica

So clever! But how do you get one? Don't you need a MD's note to get one or can you just order one off the internet??

I made it! I think you can get one on the internet and have anything you want engraved on it though

http://www.americanmedical-id.com/

[Yulia_R]

Even if there is no room on the form itself, you can always write on the top/bottom of it that you do not consent to any vaccines and sign it.

[Elowyn]

I just wouldn't sign the thing altogether, personally. In a true, life-threatening emergency, they'll take care of your child regardless.

In urgent situations (where care should be started before you can get there but lives aren't at stake) a verbal consent over the phone is sufficient to get things started. For all other urgent visits/emergencies, you can sign the hospital consent when you get there.

And if there will be no parent readily available for an emergency, I'd leave a signed consent with a trusted relative/friend, rather than the school. JMHO.

[emma1325]

I signed it, but I wrote in: "No vaccines are to be administered for any reason without my expressed written consent and bodily presence" and then highlighted this statement.

[SuburbanHippie]

Originally Posted by emma1325

I signed it, but I wrote in: "No vaccines are to be administered for any reason without my expressed written consent and bodily presence" and then highlighted this statement.

I wrote almost this exact same thing on ours.