Perhaps a close family member or friend was one of the nearly two million Americans who sought emergency medical help for asthma in 1995. If so, he or she may have been diagnosed with status asthmaticus, described by the Journal of the American Medical Association as a severe, life-threatening asthma episode.

When someone you love has asthma, recognizing an emergency and providing quick action can possibly save a life. Anyone with asthma can experience status asthmaticus, regardless of their usual asthma classification. Even if asthma is diagnosed as mild intermittent or moderate persistent, the wrong combination of triggers can push a “normal” asthma episode to a point where regular medications just won’t help.

Recognizing a medical emergency

The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (a project of the National Institutes of Health) outlines the visual clues that can help you judge whether you and your loved one are facing an asthma emergency. If you see these warning signs, stay calm, and be prepared to do for your partner what he or she cannot do for him or herself. Remember, the person experiencing an asthma emergency may be too breathless and debilitated to administer self-care.

• If breathing does not improve within 15-20 minutes after using rescue medication, call your spouse’s health care provider for instructions.
• If the person with asthma remains breathless while sitting or at rest, and can’t get out more than a word or two without taking a breath, call your spouse’s health care provider for instructions.
• If breathing in causes the skin above your spouse’s collarbones to “suck in” (this is called retraction), call the doctor for instructions.
• If your loved one’s lips or fingernails appear bluish-gray, don’t wait. Go to the nearest emergency room.
• Listen to your partner. If your partner has been wheezing loudly throughout inhalation and expiration, and if the wheezing gets much quieter or stops, don’t wait. Go to the nearest emergency room.
• If your spouse suddenly becomes drowsy or confused, he or she may be losing consciousness because of the lack of oxygen. Call 911 immediately.

Preventing an asthma emergency

With early and appropriate intervention, it’s possible to prevent an asthma episode from turning into a medical emergency. The place to find instructions for intervention is your spouse’s asthma action plan. An asthma action plan usually includes several sets of specific instructions based on increasingly severe asthma warning signs and symptoms.

Learn where your spouse keeps his or her action plan and emergency medication. While you can’t always prevent an episode of status asthmaticus, you can reduce the chances of a bad situation getting worse, just by keeping a cool head and being prepared.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 31st, 2007 at 1:46 am and is filed under Caregivers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.