Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Asthma triggered by dirty desk fan

Tonight we went to the church auction, and everyone got something. My seven year old boy selected a nice desktop air fan. We brought it home, plugged it in, and 15 minutes later he had an asthma attack.

We gave him his medicine, shut off the fan, and turned the air filter in his room to the highest setting. Yet, even after the fan was removed, the reaction continued unabated. We suspected that the pollen and dust that the fan had blown around his room continued to trigger his attack. We removed all his sheets, pillow cushions and vacuumed the room. This seemed to remove the irritant and allow his medicine to work.

After about an hour of suffering, he overcame his reaction, and fell asleep.

Tomorrow I'll replace the fan with a new one, since he really liked having a fan and had big plans for keeping himself cool all summer long (even though we have central air conditioning).

Just something to keep in mind: keep asthmatic kids away from dirty old fans. I'm willing to bet $1000 that whoever donated the fan to the church auction had a cat or was a smoker, both major triggers for his asthma.

No comments: