Bridget
Fayetteville,#2Author of original report
Fri, August 05, 2005
My step-son is with us for summer visitation right now. He was enrolled in the summer "camp" program by his mother. He went to camp on Monday, then on Tuesday, he was coughing a lot. He has a history of allergies and asthma and the cough sounded a lot to me like his asthma acting up again. He does not have an inhaler at "camp", and we had to take his inhaler from our house to his old school because he had an asthma attack at school one day and his mother had not taken one up there. However, I also take the exact inhaler (same dosage and everything) for my asthma, so we kept him home from school. We were not able to get in to see the doctor until today (Thursday). So, today, we took him in to see the doctor and I was right. His allergies were triggering his asthma. He also has eczema that has been left untreated ever since he went to live with his mother and it had spread all the way down to his legs. He also had to have his arm x-rayed again today so that he can see the orthapedic doctor tomorrow morning (his arm was broken "on a slip-n-slide" in June). Today, I am informed that if he misses any more "camp" he will be expelled from the school, even though he has missed due to medical problems. We live right across the street from the hospital, so if he had an asthma attack, he could either use my inhaler or we could get him to the hospital in a matter of a minute or even less. If he were at "camp", they would not have an inhaler for him and they are at least 20 minutes from a hospital, not to mention, they would have to call a parent to come pick him up and take him to the hospital. Now, I know from experience that an asthma attack can be fatal. My first born son died from an acute asthma attack in February 2000. The pediatrician agreed that we did the right thing keeping him home and gave us a note saying that he was not to return to school for 7 days so that we could make sure his new meds are going to work for him. Yet, we are still told that he will be expelled if he misses tomorrow. He will just have to be expelled because we are going to follow his doctor's orders! He knows a whole lot more than the idiot they call a doctor at his "camp/school". He is the only reason my step-son is alive. As a newborn, he was sick and several doctors had seen him and couldn't figure out why he was sick, until Dr. Ball came in (which is still his pediatrician now). He immediately ordered the RSV test... and was right. He then had him flown to the Children's Hospital in Little Rock. I trust Dr. Ball over the idiot psychiatrist at my step-son's camp/school.