A life cruelly taken — and a warning of how quickly this can kill
SAMANTHA Jones was a tenacious 15-year-old girl.
She shone in the colour yellow and lived to be around friends.
But on March 4, 2005, she suffered a catastrophic asthma attack as we walked south along Morriss Rd, on the outskirts of Warrnambool in the state’s southwest.
She gasped for breath, wheezing, as she held herself up on a brick and metal front fence bordered by roses.
Asthma was bleeding the air from my friend’s lungs quicker than it could be replaced.
I thrust my asthma puffer into her hands as others frantically dialled 000.
But within minutes, the asthma attack stopped Samantha’s heart, and she never recovered.
She would have turned 27 this year.
As a chronic asthmatic myself I spent much of my childhood being ridiculed for carrying a grey puffer and not participating in outdoor sports classes on icy cold days.
Regardless of the schoolyard taunts, I took the respiratory condition seriously. I spent a significant amount of time in hospital being treated for asthma.
According to Asthma Australia, one in nine people have asthma in this country — more than 2.5 million people. Of those, only 20 per cent aged over 15 have a written asthma action plan.
It wasn’t until last November — as the result of a tragic and deadly thunderstorm asthma event — that asthma was thrust into the spotlight. Nine precious lives were lost. Nine brothers and sisters. Nine Samanthas.
Asthma can be a killer. We MUST take it seriously.
Every one of us.