UK Health Radio Medical News Update Asthma- The child’s perspective

UK Health Radio Medical News Update

Asthma- The child’s perspective

Last week I reported on the first national study of asthma deaths in the UK that concluded that people who suffer from asthma, are often dying unnecessarily because of complacency among both medical staff and patients.

This week I want to introduce you to Gracie Timms.  Gracie is our newest recruit and is going to work with me and cover relevant health stories from a younger persons point of view.  Gracie has put together her first piece that deals with asthma and how it affects her friend and other children.

Asthma in Children

 

Asthma is a illness that can affect children as well as adults. My friend suffers from asthma (we will call her Tanya for the sake of this article and to protect her identity). She often has asthma attacks and takes a blue inhaler. The inhaler is filled with Ventolin. Tanya always shakes it before she inhales it. She breathes out then inhales the medicine.

When Tanya has an asthma attack the passages of her airways narrow, making it more difficult for the air to pass through and making it more difficult for Tanya to breathe. This can cause wheezy noises, although not everyone with asthma will wheeze. Tanya wheezes a lot.

An asthma attack can happen at any time. When we were visiting London we went on the London eye. Tanya had an asthma attack when we were on it. Her mum was waiting for us at the bottom, with the inhaler. I had to ring her. They had to stop the London eye so Tanya could get off. Fortunately, Tanya was all right in the end. There are usually warning signs for a couple of days before. These include symptoms getting worse, especially during the night, and needing to use the reliever inhaler more and more. Tanya does yoga and swimming as she finds it helps her breathing. She is lucky that she has never had an asthma attack whilst swimming. Touch wood she never will.  Unfortunately, there is no cure for asthma yet, but some things can help and it is very important that mums and dads do not smoke when their children are near by.

Gracie Timms for UK Health Radio, Medical News Update

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