GRAND CHUTE, Wis. — For the past decade. Angel Mueller has been educating others on the use and availability of epinephrine to help people facing severe allergic reactions.
Mueller, a Mishicot resident, said she is doing it for her son, Dillon.
“Doing this training in his memory, it’s keeping his memory alive and his story alive,” Mueller said. “It’s also something where change comes from.”
Dillon died from a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting Oct. 4, 2014, at the age of 18.
Three years later, a measure in his honor was signed into law in Wisconsin to improve access to medication and to allow trained individuals to carry and administer epinephrine through an epinephrine auto-injector.
"We turned that grief into power, energy and motivation to go out and make a difference,” Mueller said. “No one, ever, should die of an allergic reaction. Ever.”
Culinary arts students at Fox Valley Technical College recently took one of the training and certification classes taught by Mueller and her husband, George.
Ian Jones was one of those students.
“I think it’s super important, especially in my profession with culinary, for people to be able to save people’s lives,” he said. “You never know whenever anything can go wrong; especially with food-related allergic reactions, anything can happen.”
Jones said this training fits in with the other aspects of culinary arts he is learning.
“We’re learning a lot about being food-safe and how to be sanitary, so I think this ties in well,” he said.
Work is underway to bring Dillon’s Law to a much wider audience.
“We are working on Dillon’s Law nationwide so that any trained individual and give an epinephrine auto-injector and save a life without the fear of liability," Mueller said. “Here in Wisconsin, we’re doing it.”