Nothing is ever too severe that it is not capable of killing you, not even asthma. This untimely and terrible passing of 12 year old Ryan Gibbons makes it crystal clear — that is something. Ryan was a ruffalo mountain who liked motorcycle and many hikes in woods, but he would end up dying because of a deadly mistake. In 2012, he had an asthma attack at school. He could have used his inhaler at the start of the incident, but the means to life saving had been stolen.
On October 9 as any other day, 12-year old seventh grader Ryan Gibbons went to school. He would not go home that day.
Ryan suffered an asthma attack during a game of football at school and couldn’t get to his rescue medication, it was kept in the school office. Some of his inhaler cleared his airways, so he could breathe.
But it was against the policy of the school to keep the inhalers locked in the principal’s office, so it was frequently a losing battle for Ryan to keep a spare inhaler. Ryan’s buddies tried to grab him and take him to the office, but couldn’t get to the inhaler in time. Ryan fainted and was never restored back to life.
The Elgin Country School Ontario, Canada was a catastrophe, which rocked a whole country. A doc’s note failed to save Ryan from his school, where his mother says several staff failed to allow him to keep his puffer with him. But in order to get around this regulation, Ryan would sometimes carry an additional inhaler to school his mother, Sandra Gibbons says.
Risky is keeping the inhaler locked away because asthma attacks aren’t always predicted. But Ryan was able to keep the original one; the school continued to take the second one.
Ryan’s mother said she called the school several times to have an inhaler Ryan brought to class picked up. It was not allowed to take it home. You would give him an inhaler, but he would get caught with the inhaler and it would be taken away, said Sandra Gibbons, CBC.
And I would then get a call. In spite of that, it was rather annoying. I couldn’t figure out why. I did not know that the policy had a mandate for the prescribed medication to be in the office. Fortunately, Ryan’s death came too soon. His mother has since promised to do all she can to prevent another family to go through what she did since Ryan’s passing.
Sandra Gibbons went on to launch a petition to order school boards in Ontario to implement standardised asthma management programs after the girl’s burial. In addition, she encouraged all three parties to support a private member’s bill introduced by Progressive Conservative Jeff Yurek.
Gibbons remembered to Allergic Living: “It was like you lost everything you live for when Ryan died.” When I buried my son I realised that this was an attack that could have been avoided. I would personally think that he would be here today if people were properly trained and knew what they were supposed to be looking for when a youth is in trouble.
For Sandra’s part, she wanted to change the laws that prohibit children with asthma from carrying the equipment that can save their lives. She would soon begin to see its effects from her conscious battle. But now all parties in the legislature back Bill 135, which is known as Ryan’s Law.
Then the law requires schools to let children with inhalers pull them out of their pockets or backpacks with a doctor’s note. “I am extremely emotional, overwhelmed and happy that it will happen,” said Sandra Gibbons, “It is important to get asthma medication to children with asthma that’s readily available so when they are in school they can have access to potentially life saving medication.”
Even in every state in the United States there are rules that no student should do without an asthma inhaler. Still, during the school day, some children are still turned away from these life saving drugs. This is prohibited by many schools’ general anti drug policies. Fatal asthma is a serious in issue, with over ten Americans suffering the likelihood of death to a daily basis. Although the number of deaths from asthma has gone down in the past ten years, there should never be an asthma related fatality.
I am broke up by the news of Ryan’s story. That’s sad and I detest it when people does not reflect. Yet, Ryan’s tragic past was not meant to earn him sympathy, for his life altered the fates of tens of thousands of children with asthma. Had his mother not fought for justice, more terrible deaths would have happened — I’m glad organisers of ‘Ryan’s law’ and lawmakers signed it. Let’s share this article to show Ryan’s honor and to educate more of asthmatics that their inhaler must always be at hand in reach.