Asthma health alert

[Crafty Amanda]

For more information:
Erin Lee, asthma education coordinator, Fight Asthma Milwaukee, (414) 390-2179 Victoria Benz, Sr. PR specialist, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, (414) 266-5429

How to help someone having an asthma attack

Milwaukee (2/26/04) - More than 120,000 children in Wisconsin have been diagnosed with asthma. So, you probably know a child who has asthma. Asthma flare-ups are triggered by many things and can happen unexpectedly. They often can result in a trip to an emergency room. "These flare-ups can be prevented, however, by avoiding asthma triggers and taking prescribed long-term control medications every day, even when feeling OK," said Erin Lee, Fight Asthma Milwaukee (FAM) Allies asthma education coordinator. But what happens if someone you know starts to have an asthma flare-up? Would you know how to help?

When someone with asthma begins having trouble breathing, you can help by:
* Staying calm.
* Having the person sit down.
* Encouraging slow, deep breaths.
* Giving quick-relief medication (for example, albuterol, levalbuterol, pirbuterol).
* Calling for help if medication isn't available or if 15 minutes after taking the medication, symptoms have not improved.

FAM Allies, the largest asthma coalition in Wisconsin, is located at Children's Health Education Center in Milwaukee. The coalition's mission is to work together with children and families, connecting them to caring people, reducing hospital stays and supporting healthy lives. For more information, visit www.famallies.org.

FAM Allies is funded, in part, by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., which is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to quality health care at reasonable cost; to improve the quality of care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse - tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.

[Lifestar]

This is a great post. I just want to add a comment of my own on one subject touched on by the author of the article..

S/he writes:

How to help someone having an asthma attack


When someone with asthma begins having trouble breathing, you can help by:

* Giving quick-relief medication (for example, albuterol, levalbuterol, pirbuterol).

I feel I have to remind everyone how important it is.. that you NEVER give a child an inhaler that is not prescribed spicifically for him/her..even if you know the child is asthmatic.


While 2 puffs of YOUR albuteral inhaler is perfectly safe for you.. it is potent enough to put a child into cardiac arrythmias...

Please remember that dosage concentrations differ from inhaler to inhaler.. so never let children "share" them...


Thanks for letting me get that off my chest... After so many years as a paramedic.. I still have bad dreams at night.. . So you know I can't keep my "mouth" shut when I feel a need to "speak out"

Val