arrrg (venting)

I have a 9 year old son with asthma. He came home from school today having a very difficult time breathing. His stomache muscles wear even pulling in with each breath and retracting severly. He was lethargic and just not doing well.

We found a note in his book bag from his teacher telling us he was pale today and seemed to be having some wheezing and breathing problems. She also stated he was sleepy and even fell asleep for about 20 mins during school.

Now my question is if you have a student that you know has asthma and saw these things why wouldnt she call us!!! We called the school to ask just that and her reply was "well i didtn think he was having a full blown asthma attack and I asked him if he would be ok untill school got out."

Keep in mind he also is mentallly retarded and she should know that asking him a question like that you might not get a good answer. Also he is on the bus for another 45 min so by the time he got home it was even worse.

Alot of people dont know how serious asthma can be. My sister has it. And shes had to go to the emergency room alot from having attacks. Kaidence also has it and Im so peronoid with him. They can die from it! I dont get why people dont realize that. They can go from ok to dead in a very short time. You better have a serious talk with all the teachers at the school. They need to know to call you when hes having any trouble breathing.

Wow, that is unbeleivable of the teacher, I would be really mad too!! You should call the school and let the principal know. Next time it could be MROE serious, and the teacher doesn't call you? Not acceptable

Right I could see if he said his stomache hurt or something like that but when you can see visable syptoms that a child is have difficulty breathing come on. They have both our cell phone numbers they should have called us and let us decide what to do at the very least. Now since it was a while that he was like this before he got home we are having a hard time getting control of it and im just praying we can get through the night with out a hospital visit. So far 3 treatments later hes not much better so not looking to hopefull.

The school needs to be notified that YOU are to be called if he has ANY trouble breathing or is NOT acting right. They can not call the shots for you like that.

I would be on them like a ton of bricks.

Right and we have told them before any questions plz call but on the phone to them after school we told them again any problems call us. It makes me scared to send him now and we have ran into problems with them before not giving meds cause they forgot or thought he was ok. I always tell them what time he has had last dose and when he needs next not well if he seems better dont give it to him. Maybe i need his dr to say something let them know exactly what could happen.

Do you have a home nebuliser you can give him to stablise his breathing?

As far as the school, I think I would look for a new one, if they have put your son's health at risk before and continue to do so, it could have a bad outcome at some future occurance, to me it just isn't worth it.

My mum went through the same thing with my sister's school (well all three of us went there at the time) when the teacher refused to let my sister take her inhaler even though she was having an attack and I found her unable to breath crying in the bathrooms at break and raised a stink by storming into the headmistress' office and demanding that my mum was called and I was taking my sisters home

That is neglect!!!!
What if he got a full on attack while on the bus?
Lord!!
She could have at least called you.
I mean she seemed to notice his behavior and his reaction to the breathing problem..it warrent concern for her to keep paying attention...WHY NOT CALL YOU!

I woud be enraged!

exactly he has a nebulizer at home and school. There wasnt any reason for it. The prob is I cant change schools cause they are the only school in town that teach special ed in his grade so we are stuck. I think after us calling and yelling at them i hope they will call us for any little thing. Its really hard to see your kid strugling for air and nothing more you can do to help him besides his zopenex and prednisone.

Back in middle and high school I wasn't even allowed to keep my inhaler on me! It's amazing to me how not serious many people see asthma. I'm not a nurse or anything, just an asthmatic myself, I'd take your son to the hospital. It's better safe than sorry and the last thing you want is for him to go into status asthmaticus.

Good Lord! That teacher needs a lesson in "CPR". The first thing you deal with is "Airway" and then "Breathing"!!!! Geez!

She saw his breathing was distressed, yet she did nothing?! Asthma, is deadly, especially in children!

Is there a way that you can call the school a couple times (once in the morning and once in the afternoon) to check on how he's doing? If they know you are calling they will pay more attention to his health.

Granted teachers aren't nurses and they aren't there to medically look after children, but it's just common sense to contact a parent if you see the child is sick or having some kind of a health problem.

Don't they have a school nurse at the school? Most do.

I would suggest taking your son into the ER to have him looked at. He may need a wet ventolin and atrovent treatment to open his airways and his rescue inhalers may not be enough.

I am soo sorry this happened to your son he did not deserve that! I would file a complaint with the school board and be kind but to the point- this should NEVER happen again. It should have never happened in the first place! He could have died from an astmah attack- it is a serious medical condition and people with astmah can have a sudden attack and without help or medicine, can suffer drastic complications. They should know that as a mentally retarded child, he might not be able to always tell them when he needs his medicine- they are adults- they need to make an appropriate judegement call -and if in the case of astmah, it is always safer to err on the side of caution and go ahead and administer medicine and call the parents. (My uncle is mentally retarded- but he has a high functioning form of it- yet is unable to really communicate about his medicine, etc so we always have to help him with it, so i understand what it's like.) Also, I am an astmatic- The last time I had a severe attack was less than a year ago-even with my nebulizer- i wound up in the hospital with a collasped lung bairly breathing- and that's with my inhaler and with my boyfriend getting me to the hospital asap. I was lucky I got there in time. I shudder to think how much worse it would have been if i hadn't. The staff at his school needs to be made aware of just how serious and deadly astmah can be- this should absolutely NEVER happen again. I would definitely file a report. / I hope you son feels better tonight I am sooo sorry this happened to ya'll. It is nice to know that he has such a great mom looking after him though He is soo lucky to have such a wonderful person in his life

Sending your son many {{{feel better prayers and vibes}}}. My brain-damaged daughter was special ed, too, and it seems like that population is ofen overlooked in many ways. For instance, in high school, another DD student, a very large boy, grabbed her behind; when I complained (had a meeting with the principal and the Sp.Ed. director/teacher) and they were more worried that I understand that the kid wasn't capable of controlling his impulses! What about the fear and embarrassment to my daughter?? I told them that if the boy had been "norm" he would have been on juvenile probation facing assault charges and that since they didn't have the sense to get it without my telling them, I transferred to the next county, although that meant an extra 90 miles of driving per day for us...
Granted, teaching sp. ed. is very, very taxing (I used to volunteer, to help the staff have a break) but they know that these kids need extra monitoring, esp. with a life-threatening condition such as asthma!!

I agree they do have a school nurse but they didnt even send him down to see her just asked if he would be ok till he got home. The part that scared me and made me more mad was she said he was sleepy and fell asleep she needs to relise thats a sign of not getting enough O2. Thats a EMERGENCY!

He did pretty good through the night. We gave him treatments every 2 hours and now it seems we have a handle on it I am really scared now to send him to school. His class is going to the mall today to eat and see santa and he really wants to go I think hes feeling better enough to be ok if they give him his treatments today.

I am gonna send his portable nebulizer so he can take it with him. I am also sending a note and im gonna call and speak with the nurse again. They know from calling them yesterday we are not happy hopefully they pay more attention.

I would make an appointment with the principle and the teacher at your son's school.

Leaving a note in his bookbag for you to find is uncalled for!! She should take 5 minutes of her teaching schedule to march him down to the nurses and get him the attention he needs.

I had a coworker that had a son with asthma, to the point he couldn't participate in most gym activities. When she moved, the gym teacher made him participate despite the my coworkers request (with a doctors note). She finally started interviewing around at other schools and switched him to a school that WILL take care of him when he needs it.