A twelve-year-old boy lost his life because his school had confiscated his asthma inhaler
Dealing with the loss of a child has to a harrowing experience for any parent, but when their death is due to futile and avoidable reasons, then to utter desperation, we must also add indescribable anger!
This is, unfortunately, the same anger that Sandra Gibbons, a Canadian mother, must have felt when she learned that her son Ryan had died during a normal school day following an asthma attack that could very well have been avoided.
via CBC.ca
The school where Ryan used to go, in Ontario, had very strict rules regarding asthma inhalers. Each student could only have one, which was kept in the principal's office.
Many times Sandra had tried to ask that the rules be changed by sending notes from Ryan's doctor, but the school staff had not wanted to hear or consider her reasons.
Indeed, it had happened on several occasions that the school authorities had taken away the extra inhalers that Ryan had brought to school with him, and then calling his mother to ask her to come to the school to retrieve them.
One day Ryan, while playing with his classmates in the school courtyard, was seized by a very strong asthma attack. The twelve-year-old immediately told his companions that he did not feel well, and probably began to panic.
Everyone around him became upset but they tried to help Ryan by quickly taking him to the principal's office where the inhaler was held. But, it appears that the principal's office was locked! And the moments that followed were agitated and confused, and Ryan's mother never knew in detail what had exactly happened.
The only thing certain is that when they finally got Ryan into the principal's office, to get the inhaler, it was too late! Unconscionable! A young boy was unnecessarily killed, by an illness that, although incurable, can easily be kept under control thanks to an inhaler.
After having managed to cope with her pain, which we imagine must have been devastating, Ryan's mother Sandra, has decided to transform the tragic event into an opportunity for positive and life-saving change!
In fact, she has embarked on a fierce battle to modify the rules in all the schools in Canada, so that every asthmatic child can always have their inhalers with them and not run the risk of dying from such an insidious and undervalued disease.
