A reminder: This is for emergency situations only. You still need to see your physician for refills and continued medial attention.

Step 1.) Loosening the shell:
The first dose has already been administered (and your) clinical judgement (says) you need to administer another dose.
You can use a knife (or) what you have on hand to loosen/pry the four corners around the core. You are loosening the transparent case from the white core for the next step.

Step 2.)   Pulling the white core out of the transparent sheathe:
Now that the outside is loosened, pulling the internal parts of the Epi-pen out will be easier. When on its way out, the spring may cause the white core you’re grabbing to spring out. After the spring comes out, the only thing left inside should be the syringe of epi and it’s needle.

Step 3.)   Identify and prepare needle and syringe:
You can see for yourself how many doses are left.  It’s important to note that the needle is covered in a gray sheathe. You will want to remove the gray sheathe carefully.

Step 4.)  Administering a dose:
The plunger should come already pushed down to the stopper due to the initial dose given to the patient. Point the needle up in the air and draw air into the needle until the rubber part of the plunger is near the back of the vial that holds the epinephrine. Once you have air drawn in to the syringe, you will administer the second intramuscular dose to the patient.

You need to draw the air in, in order to push more epinephrine out. This can be repeated 3-4 more times depending on how you measure it.

You will be using the same needle for as many times as you will need to inject and, unfortunately, it will become duller and more painful with each additional injection but it is certainly worth it to save a life.

More details can be found over on the Crisis Application Group and we encourage you to read up on this subject just in case you ever find yourself in a dangerous situation such as this – for a friend, family member or yourself!