A longtime K-9 officer with Hatboro police died Thursday while in hospice care after a suffering a brain injury from a bee sting late last year.
On Thursday afternoon Chief James Gardner announced that Ryan Allen died surrounded by family and friends. Allen’s family had taken him into hospice care last month when they were told he would not recover from his injuries in any meaningful way.
Ryan Allen, who had been with Hatboro for the past nine years, was stung by a bee at his Bucks County home in October. He suffered anaphylactic shock and was clinically dead for about 20 minutes, however EMS were able to restart his heart.
He suffered a traumatic brain injury because of how long his brain lacked oxygen. The officer has spent the last months in various hospital and rehabilitation facilities.
… after his brain swelling had subsided, a recent MRI revealed the shrinking of his brain and that portions of his brain are no longer there.
That’s sad. My father was deathly allergic to bee stings, and I was somewhat allergic in my younger years. Overtime my allergic reaction subsided, but I still am careful not to find out otherwise.
Would using an Epi pen immediately have made a difference in saving his life? My father-in-law had to carry one with him at all times because he was deathly allergic to bees.
You never know,the last sting you got, sets you up for the next BAD sting. If you have trouble breathing or swallowing, run for help.
Protocols vary from state to state, but generally speaking, 10 minutes down is considered to be unrecoverable, and this man was twice that.
But this presupposes that it is KNOWN how long he was down. It usually requires a witnessed arrest to determine that, and the article doesn’t really say how long his heart had actually stopped and who/how that was determined.
The man apparently hadn’t a living will, and was a bit young and healthy for a DNR, so it would be a judgement call for the medic, amped by the fact it was a PO and that his wife was probably very anxious that he live.
I’m guessing they hit him with epinephrine for the anaphylaxis, which is a very cardioactve drug, and must have found a shockable rhythm (you do not shock asystole, e.g., “flatline”), and and since cardiac muscle dies very easily of anoxia, it was probably considered very hopeful that they were able to cardiovert him at all.
You have 4 minutes to brain death, but it’s not as cut and dried as it seems. He wasn’t passing ENOUGH air obviously, but was he passing SOME? Did someone start rescue breathing/CPR before the squad arrived, or did he just lay there for 20 minutes until one did? I don’t know this place, but where I ran the cops generally carried oxygen and BVMs and it wasn’t unusual they would get the party started before I got there since they were already in their cars and maybe close by while I had to mount up at the central station usually some distance away, and again this was a LEO and they all know each other and where they live in a smaller town, so they probably beat feet to help a fallen officer.
You could, and some ambulance chaser probably will, call this a wrongful life suit, but there’s not enough here to determine that. It would come down in any case to a “reasonable care” standard, if most medics of equivalent training in that situation would do the same thing, and if it fell within the protocols EMS typically operates under.
I was taught to err on the side of life. Short of obvious death as defined by things like lividity, rigor mortis, damage incompatible with life, things like that, I likely would have done the same.
Pray for this mans family and freinds. Pray the Lord strengthens them through this difficult time. Pray his family finds the means and the will to carry on.
And pray they escape survivor’s guilt, the guilt many feel when a long term illness patient succumbs and they feel…relieved that they no longer have to worry, to struggle, to keep the frail flame of organistic life alive in the body from which they can see the spirit of their loved one departed long ago.
Pray this man was saved and the Lord gives his Blessed Assurance that he is with Him in heaven.
Pray for all who morn that they may find peace.
God Bless,
SNS
geoff the aardvark
APRIL 7, 2022 AT 7:04 PM
“Would using an Epi pen immediately have made a difference in saving his life? ”
…very likely, but they have grown more expensive and difficult to get since the advent of Obamacare, and you have to use them quickly, be conscious to do so, and/or have someone who can help you. Also, you need to be aware that an EpiPen is NOT definitive care, as it may itself cause cardiac issues. Also, like any drug, it expires and becomes ineffective if stored improperly, and you must have it WITH you at the time. That EpiPen you had in your glovebox for 2 1/2 years of freezing and boiling when you go down in the backyard and no one knows its there isn’t going to do you or anyone else a damn bit of good.
While painting my house years ago with really good, 50 year paint (stinky good – wasps and yellow jackets hate it), I got stung in the forehead dozens of times by yellow jackets living behind an attic vent grill. I stopped for a bit, got down and put the pan on the ground and out of curiosity went back up the ladder empty handed right by the buzzing vent. No stings. Got down, brought the paint back up and started painting again. Sting sting sting sting sting sting sting sting sting sting …
They really hated that paint. But they actually knew me because they would visit my deck every evening and invite themselves onto my dinner plate for a feast. Always let them do that as they can’t sting you when they’re in eating mode. True. It’s amazing how many people don’t know that.
People have been dying from being in the world… for… ever.
Depending on who dies, sometimes tragic.
But COVID? Reeeeee!
You not only let these wymyn (of all genders) vote! You kill men who would burn tham at the stake. Tragic. All ways.
Speaking of Epi Pens, why are narcan shots readily available and FREE while Epi Pens are so damn expensive?
I’ve heard about enough from this fnuck dude. He’s a babbling fool. Sure. We all say stupid stuff, regrettable things from time to time.
But this guy always says stupid stuff.
@jellybean
Because the war on drugs employs a hell of a lot more people. Legalizing all drugs would put alot of people out of work.
PHenry
I agree with you (as I’m sure most others do too) but we have to let the ignorant among us speak their diminished minds, and then just grin and bear it.
@stirring. Yeah I guess so. Ugh.
has anyone ever seen Africa Bob and fnuck, son of fnord in the same room? hmmmmmmm……..
OH MY! Steve Brown, THAT’S who he reminds me of! I’ve been trying to think of who it was for the last month or so!
Thank you!! 😂
jellybean
APRIL 7, 2022 AT 8:42 PM
“Speaking of Epi Pens, why are narcan shots readily available and FREE while Epi Pens are so damn expensive?”
…in Ohio there is a state funded program that provides naloxone to the counties via Project Dawn, where anyone will be provided with 2 doses of nasal Narcan (not injectable) after a short training. Ohio law grants limited immunity for anyone administering it as a Good Samaritan, even to the point of shielding a drug user from prosecution if they call 911 after treating another drug user. This is largely because Ohio has had a pretty hideous problem with heroin as well as an aging population taking prescribed opioid based painkillers that overdoses out of forgetfulness, and this is meant to keep medical expenses down as much as anything else.
Also, to give folks a second chance.
I’ve been back and forth about Narcan. I used the injectable kind on squad for years, known users more modernly that have codependent users narc each other reoeatedly for years until someone dies, stuff like that..but never personally seen anyone that did the most with their “second chance”.
Still, I went to a Project Dawn distributor and kicked it back and forth with the gal that counsels there, traded some “war stories”, and ultimately included it in my personal bag.
Because Jesus gave ME a second chance. Who am I to deny someone else?
Also, because it is simply not in me to let someone die if it is in my power to forestall it.
Which, funnnily enough, came up last week. Had a kid go down in the smoking shelter at work. Someone called on the radio. Nice set of prison tattoos when we lifted his shirt to see the lack of breathing. Oddly enough, even though it was in a different building on the campus, I ended up doing CPR with the same Hatian EHS guy I did it with LAST time, difference being that THIS kid lived.
Apparently helped by Narcan.
(This brings my win/lose ratio for cardiac events at work to 3-1, which is a weird stat for an ELECTRICIAN to have, but such is life…)
…I don’t know what this kid will do when he recovers. Probably more drugs, if my past experience is any indication. But maybe not, at least its fir the Lord to say, we did OUR part to give him a Damascus Road momeny, its up to him if the scales fall from his eyes, but at least he has more time to figure it out.
Epinephrine isn’t nearly so sexy in terms of politics, not as visible in terms of deaths, doesn’t have an advocacy group to lobby lawmakers, and is actually more dangerous than Narcan as well as being ONLY injectable and so takes some skill to dose and doesn’t have the liability protection for non-precription users. You can ASSIST someone to inject themselves, but you may NOT inject them yourself unless specifically licensed and trained.
Also, it you don’t get to a hospital toot sweet, the epinephrine is as likey to kill you as the anaphylaxis it counteracts was.
Also, it’s still under patent where Narcan is not.
…it’s kind of the same thing with insulin, but this is already too long and I think you get the idea…
Can we release these bees in DC to finish the job the rabid fox didn’t?
Jellybean – It’s because the narcan has more of a chance of saving a democrat voter!
RIP
Curious about his vax status, though …
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
@jellybean and old vet, thanks to you both for your posts. It blows my mind that cops are required to carry narcan just to revive a pos junkie who, when he comes back top life is always furious at being revived because you ruined his high. Yet someone who has the unfortunate incident of a lefot allergic reaction will die on the same street as that pos junkie
Since he was a cop, how do they know those brain portions were there in the first place?
DC
APRIL 8, 2022 AT 9:00 AM
…I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m not even substantially of a different mindset. I’ve never seen a heroin addict “get better”; in my personal experience it simply does not happen. I’ve known them to literally steal from their dying grandmother, wreck family carS in search of drugs, lose good jobs so they couldn’t support their family, narc and drug, narc and drug until one day their kid finds them dead, cause horrific accidents killing innocents…all that and worse.
Never seen one get better, no. Heard about it, never saw it.
And yes, in my experience, you narc one and they’ve universally come back doing TWO things; puking and punching. Had one say he’d kill me for ending his high.
But all that said, I’d narc em anyway.
Three things:
1) I took an oath.
2) God wants em to have a chance.
3) They have families. Someone loves em, usually a kid. Kids are funny like that.
And a fourth thing too, which is that I cannot just let someone die, whatever I think of them. That’s just not how God made me.
….I do agree about EpiPens to a point. That point being that the epinephrine ITSELF can kill you, and anyone helping with it HAS to know that and be prepared to deal with it.
But the laws are different, so legally you have to be licensed to administer it to anyone but yourself.
And its expensive, as I understand it because some woman bought the patent and immediately jacked the price, so not everyone can afford it.
I don’t know about police, but at this point most squads carry it. Private citizens cannot do so without a prescription, and like I said, there’s some reason for that.
But you CAN “assist” someone with taking their own, tho. You know, taking their unconscious hand, putting the stinger in it, and swinging their arm to their thigh is “assisting”, if the situation is dire AND you’re sure that’s what the problem is…
@SNS
Haven’t used since ’97. I guess there are exceptions.
…I did not say there weren’t. I DID say I heard of some. I only said my PERSONAL, as in patients AND freinds AND family member experience was that there were NONE.
I personally never saw it. I’m sure you are telling the truth and God bless you for being able to, but you are in a tiny minority of those who could. Between physical and psychological addition it has the strongest chains on its users, and many also know how they are acting and have a very poor self-image that makes them feel unworthy of salvation which is reinforced by family in many cases, so they seek the felloship of other addicts which helps not at all.
Its not for lack of trying. I know families that have destroyed themselves trying to help an addict, I personally have tried to intervene both personally and professionally, but as I have said many times on these pages, I don’t know the magic words and know no one who might.
Except Christ.
And maybe you know, too.
…most addicts in my experience don’t want to even talk about it with non-users, the old “you can’t possibly understand”, and that is correct, I can’t.
But one such as yourself CAN.
And you know at least one avenue out.
I’m not pure myself. I am an alcoholic even though my last drink was decades ago. I woke up one day too many with vomit on my clothes and with everyone pissed at me for nothing a blackout drunk like me could remember, and walked away. This gave me an understanding and an avenue to talk to more recent drunks about how to walk away.
I imagine you do so also. I would urge you to if you can. As I said, I’ve seen the anguished look of a 10 year old as I carried his dad’s coffin to the grave to not want that to never happen again. I’ve seen the faces of young men busted up in a rollover to ever want to deal with that again.
And I know my Lord wants His creations back.
ALL of them.
Addicts included.
I thank you for your breif testimony, and would eagerly read if you could say something of what turned it around for you. I am in awe that you could defeat that beast and will thank God that some like you exist, though I know them not. There are others here who have spoken of such, but their stories are not mine to tell.
May you always walk in freedom and in the Lord’s grace.
God Bless,
SNS
Thank you
I thank my dad.
I was living away from home. My first ever apartment. My first job out of college. That would have been ’96. Had no real friends. Hell, I didn’t know a soul except my co-workers so I managed to fall in with the wrong people….mainly because I was lonely.
Anyway, fast-forward to ’97. I got laid off, and no not for my habits. Was pretty much a functional addict. However, things got worse now that I was unemployed. Lost a ton of weight, my skin was rotting away in places. My fingers peeled like bananas. I was a walking staph infection.
One day, my dad shows up with a moving truck, packed up my apartment and moved me into the apartment with the rest of my family. I de-toxed on their living room floor with my dad standing over me asking, “Are you through, dumbass?” Eventually, I got better. It sounds funny, but I remember consciously feeling better about things around Daytona 500 weekend. Dad and I watched together. Our man won his first…Dale Earnhart.
Anyway, I think the key for me was getting me completely out of the area and away from my sources, and then moving me to a new location where I didn’t know anyone and had no choice but to get better or die. Plus being near the beach didn’t hurt either. Turns out fishing is pretty good therapy.
I also know of the struggles of booze as well.
JB_Honeydew
APRIL 8, 2022 AT 2:44 PM
…your father sounds like a strong man who loved you, and didn’t himself have an addiction. Truly you were blessed by that.
Thank you for sharing that story. Someone’s child may take a hope I cannot myself give from that.
Someone’s father may take hope from it too, as well.
Which brings us back to my point #3 for treating an addict with Narcan.
Someone loves him.
And as with your father, that love can work miracles.
@SNS
He was a great man. He was a legendary partier in his day. Ran in the same circles as Kenny Stabler and Jimmy Buffet, before they achieved notoriety. Once he met mom, things changed for him. One, she wouldn’t put up with it, as she had an alcoholic father. Truth be told, I had great parents….strict but great. Once I was born, and my sister years later, they chose to be parents and never looked back. Dad even helped run a city youth baseball league for years, even after I was too old to play anymore. And he helped an untold number of kids, and had some horror stories to go with that. Certain kids even played for free, with equipment provided by himself or some of the other great men in the park. His/their thinking was that it was a great break for the kid to get out of their shitty environment, if only for a little while.
Sadly, he passed away almost a year ago. He had battled crippling illness for over 20 years. He’s in a better place now.