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  The Drain Family

  When my then 4-year old daughter awakened from a sound sleep gasping for air, I thought she would die. We raced to the emergency room and were told she had a bronchial infection. During the subsequent middle-of-the-night trip to the emergency room we were told she had croup. With my history of asthma I knew there was more to Anayah’s problems with breathing than “infections.” Even though the medication she has been prescribed works, I’m still worried about her asthma.

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  Elayne Lofchie

  When at age 13 I had my first asthma attack my life changed. Never very outgoing, I became even shyer. My classmates ostracized me because I was different. Daily life was structured around what might trigger an asthma attack. My family suffered, too. Because I frequently had trouble breathing, I could not walk, shop, cook or clean. My children heard me gasping for breath in the middle of the night; my husband was on call 24/7. My “specialness” was a burden on everyone. Over the past 70 years I have seen very little change in the treatments available for people like me with chronic asthma. The packaging and delivery systems are different, but the medications are essentially the same. I am still waiting for the wonders of modern science to allow me to be asthma free.

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  Homer Boushey, M.D.

  To find a cure for asthma, we'll first need a better understanding of the causes of asthma, which has proven to be a complex disease.
  
  I have been interested in clinical research on asthma for my entire career, and what makes the present so exciting is that the powerful tools of molecular biology and genetics can now be applied to the study of individuals with the disease. This is making analysis possible at a far more fundamental level than was previously possible.

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  Dwight Yorke

  There is one thing that I can never take for granted…my ability to breathe. Just like my father, I was diagnosed with chronic severe asthma at a very young age. I spent a great deal of my childhood living in hospitals. My father and I struggled with daily attacks, numerous medications, constant allergies, and many uncertainties. The battle against asthma became strenuous and never ending. On February 23, 1998, my father lost his battle to asthma and died in my arms. His death brought about tremendous sorrow and a great deal of fear. I was living with a serious disease that if not controlled or managed efficiently could end in death. Even today I still struggle with chronic asthma regardless of all the various medications on the market.

  
  
  

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