tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423880838207203660.post2813511330650112494..comments2024-01-10T09:56:49.324-05:00Comments on Respiratory Therapy Cave: Is it possible pure asthma is NOT a fatal disease?Rick Freahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01132949384071592216noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423880838207203660.post-88236436171345393172009-02-16T21:53:00.000-05:002009-02-16T21:53:00.000-05:00Anne: Thanks for the story. Your doctor may have...Anne: Thanks for the story. Your doctor may have been right. We still don't know for sure.<BR/><BR/>Shannon: I too lost a friend to asthma when I was a kid, and it's a very difficult thing to understand let alone accept.<BR/><BR/>Asthma remains a mysterious disease to even the worlds most renowned doctors and scientists. As I learn more, I will definitely report it here on this blog.Rick Freahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01132949384071592216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423880838207203660.post-56223711922176592272009-02-16T21:35:00.000-05:002009-02-16T21:35:00.000-05:00A nurse that I used to work with lost her daughter...<B>A nurse that I used to work with lost her daughter to an asthma attack. At the time I was not yet educated to a great extent about asthma (I'm now in my 2nd year of RT school) but from what I remember, her daughter was at cheer leading practice and it was a hot and humid summer day. She was not taking her meds and she developed a severe attack. It was so bad that the coach called 911 because she "stopped breathing".</B><BR/><B>I found out that she died on the way to the hospital because the Ambulance Technicians could not intubate her. I live in Quebec, Canada and we don't have paramedics in the ambulances. We only have what they call "Ambulance Technicians" and one they things they are not permitted/trained to do is intubate patients (even with a combitube).</B><BR/><B>From what I now know about asthma, I'm guessing that this was a severe attack that deteriorated into status asthmaticus. Because she could not be intubated (and I'm guessing adequately ventilated with a bagging until she could be intubated?), she died. I always thought that it took a while before things got to that point. Can you educate me a little more about this? Does this make sense to you?</B>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7423880838207203660.post-52794131763543119652009-02-16T19:20:00.000-05:002009-02-16T19:20:00.000-05:00When I was a child, there was far less you could d...When I was a child, there was far less you could do about asthma than there is now. My mom was very worried about my asthma, but somehow she avoided burdening me with that fear, and I grew up seeing my asthma as a huge nuisance and inconvenience, but not something that terrified me.<BR/><BR/>Years later, when I was grown, she told me that she had once asked our doctor about what if the asthma got so bad that I could no longer breathe. He told her that I would then lose consciousness, and that my autonomic nervous system would start me breathing again.<BR/><BR/>I have no idea if he had any experiential or theoretical basis for this belief, or if he simply thought that patients and their parents were all better off not having to deal with the fear that the patient's asthma might prove fatal.<BR/><BR/>This advice would have been given in the early 1940's, as I was born in 1939, and Dr. Rieke died when the ship he was on was torpedoed not long before the war ended.Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11916187234293845661noreply@blogger.com