Windsor restaurant stocks EpiPens because 'it just makes sense'

As the City of Windsor takes more time to consider stocking EpiPens at its recreation facilities, at least one restaurant in the city already has the medical device on hand.

The Leaf Neighbourhood Grill on Tecumseh Road E. has stocked EpiPens for the past three years.
Owner and chef Bill Kobrosli  says staff hasn't had to use them yet, but he wants to be ready, in case a customer has a severe allergic reaction.

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"It shows that we pay attention. We care, and hopefully that would distinguish me from every other restaurant in the city, that we really take care with our food and our allergies," he said. "There will always be that cross-contamination that we weren't able to control, and it just makes sense to have that there, the EpiPen."

Kobrosli  said it only costs him $200 per year to buy the EpiPens, and it's not hard to train staff to use them.

The average person is legally protected if he or she jumps in with an EpiPen to save the life of someone who is suffering a potentially lethal allergic reaction, experts say.

Much like defibrillators in sports arenas, EpiPens exist to save lives — not create unnecessary legal woes, Bernard Dickens, a retired professor of health law and policy at the University of Toronto, previously told CBC Hamilton.