Program Helps Students Cope With Asthma

Carolyn Hedgepeth does not want any other child to suffer the same fate as her son.

So the Ventura woman has dedicated herself to educating children who share his affliction.

In conjunction with the American Lung Assn., Hedgepeth kicked off an asthma-education program, “Open Airways for Schools,” this week at Marina West Elementary School in Oxnard.

Her son, Preston, died of an asthma attack at the same school in May 1996.

Too embarrassed to ask for help, the 12-year-old had retreated to a bathroom, where his symptoms advanced beyond control and he died.

Now Hedgepeth, along with school nurse Arlene Modell, will guide five asthmatic children in a three-week series of asthma-education sessions. The children will learn to recognize the signs of an attack, to manage their symptoms with medicine and breathing techniques and to always, always ask an adult for help.

“We want the kids to feel good about themselves, even though they have their asthma,” Hedgepeth said, explaining that low self-esteem is one of asthma’s potential effects.

Children often miss school because of attacks, she said, causing them to get behind in their classes and to lose self-confidence.

When children miss classes, Modell said, the school also suffers. Funding for the district is based on average daily attendance, and slim funding is the reason there are only two nurses for the district’s 15 schools.

The classes are taught on 5,000 campuses across the country, with the program depending heavily on volunteers from each community.

Hedgepeth contacted the lung association after hearing about the program last year. When she learned of plans to designate May as Clean Air Month, Hedgepeth offered to bring the program to local schools.

Donations to the lung association in Preston’s memory helped fund the program at Marina West Elementary School.

The series is an adaptation of a pilot program developed by Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Results in New York City elementary schools have been favorable.

Lung association documents showed an improvement in school performance, confidence and asthma-management skills among the 8- to 11-year-olds who completed the program. Additionally, the children in the study reported fewer and less-severe attacks.

Hedgepeth hopes to see the program expand to other schools in the district.

“[The program] has definitely kept me going,” she said. “It’s a tribute to my son.”