BY HEATHER CAMPBELL
Sudbury Regional Hospital’s new Pediatric Asthma Clinic is hoping to save children’s lives. Asthma affects an estimated 12 per cent of children in Canada and more than 200 children die each year from it. It is a chronic, inflammatory respiratory condition with no cure.
“Asthma is one the most common chronic conditions in children and the rate of asthma in children in Sudbury is higher than the provincial average,” said Dr. Sean Murray, pediatrician and medical director of Sudbury Regional’s Family and Child Program. “Education empowers families and teaches them to manage the asthma. Good management improves the child’s quality of life.”
On May 3rd the Pediatric Asthma clinic met with its first family. Angie Wiwczor, lead nurse practitioner, expects to hold a weekly clinic at the temporary location of the hospital’s Pediatric Centre of Excellence.
The clinic will help prevent or minimize the short and long-term complications linked to asthma and reduce emergency department visits and hospital admissions. Children under 18 years old will be able to participate.
Access
The clinic will be accessed through self-referral, or referral from a health care practitioner, the Emergency Department, or the Family and Child Program.
The clinic’s primary focus is to teach families how to manage the disease.
Studies indicate that predisposition to childhood asthma is determined during fetal development and in the first three to five years of life.
Possible risk factors include a family history of allergy and allergic disorders, high exposure in the early years to airborne allergens like pets, house dust mites, cockroaches and mold. The exposure to tobacco smoke, including in utero exposure, low birth weight and respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), add to the risk for asthma.
Asthma affects the airways connected to the lungs. They either become narrow with inflammation, build up with mucusor the muscles that surround the airway stighten up, making it difficult to get air. It feels like the chest has a rubber band around it. Symptoms include coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, mucus production and shortness of breath.
Medication and minimizing the triggers are the only ways to control and manage asthma. Treatment includes controller medication used daily or puffers for times when it is difficult to breathe.
Chris and Andria McDavid are parents who recently lost their three year old son Connor to complications of asthma. At the launch of the clinic on April 19th the McDavids presented staff with a cheque for $5,000 that will allow them to purchase “spacers” a device that attaches to the inhalers and helps the child take the appropriate medication.
“I don’t want to see other families go through what we did,” said McDavid. She believes that helping families understand the triggers and how to manage an asthma attack will save lives.
“Connor was diagnosed at about a year old and hospitalized several times,” she said. “I would tell parents to take it seriously, do not become comfortable or complacent.” McDavid believes that education will help parents know if they are actually triggering the asthma. “If the clinic was around before, it would have saved him.”
Triggers include colds or viruses, animals, dust mites, mold, pollen, smog or cigarette smoke as well as exercise and stress. Good asthma control is when the child is not using the rescue inhaler more than two times per week, not being limited by physical activity or missing school because of asthma. Children with asthma miss more days at school and can be limited in their activities.
“We are getting referrals from other health care providers … and the emergency department,” said Wiwczor. “The new approach with the clinic is that families can self-refer, hopefully making it easier for them to get the help they need.”
Prior to the opening of the clinic, families did not have access to quality support and education specific to child asthma. Families could only rely on the inconsistent support from busy family physicians or the pulmonary rehab center.
Wiwczor has been a pediatric nurse for the past 11 years and uses her skills to help teach children how to manage their asthma. A certified asthma educator, she teaches families what asthma is, what triggers can cause an attack, how to use medication and help to develop an action plan when attacks occur.
“We have seen a decline over the years of long admissions in the hospital and we hope to minimize the risks of hospital stays,” said Wiwczor. “It is not just a childhood illness. This is a lifetime illness.”
The clinic can be reached by phoning 705-523-7120.
