Asthma Attacks

Ben Pai, a pitcher on the Oceanside High School baseball team, died Thursday night after suffering an asthma attack after playing in a recreational basketball game. He was 17. Pai, a senior, had been playing basketball with friends at the Boys & Girls Club of Oceanside when he had the attack, authorities said. He was taken by Oceanside paramedics to Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, where he was pronounced dead at 10:19 p.m.

If Johnny can't breathe, it's time for Johnny, his parents and his doctor to get educated. That's because childhood asthma--once regarded as a problem that could be ignored because most youngsters would "grow out of it"--now is viewed as a chronic problem that can and should be controlled with regular medication. The change in view occurred within the last 15 years and has had profound effects on patients and their families.

Virtually all asthma attacks are triggered by allergies, according to a new study that challenges the widely held belief that the condition in adults usually has non-allergic causes. Traditionally, experts have categorized asthma as having both allergic and non-allergic forms. Allergic asthma was considered to be the most common type in children and young adults, while older people were usually thought to have non-allergic asthma.