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Deja Tyler, 9, of Oakland, Calif., waits for her check up during a routine visit Wednesday,...
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OAKLAND -- The pediatric inpatient unit was quiet, except for the deep, relentless coughing. It was the sound of asthma -- asthma out of control.
Two of the children who'd spent the night there, oxygen sensors glowing red around their index fingers, were ill, one with a bad cold, the other with pneumonia. But they were confined to hospital beds for a different reason: Their lungs were screaming for more air. Their illnesses had likely caused their already-sensitive airways to tighten up, choking off the flow of oxygen. And so far, nothing -- not the quick-relief inhaler at home, nor hours of treatment in the emergency room -- was enough to bring their breathing back to normal.
"I don't understand why he's not
Johnathan Tanner, 6, of San Leandro, Calif., is hospitalized for his asthma and pneumonia Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012 in Children's Hospital in Oakland, Calif. (Alison Yin/For Bay Area News Group)
getting any better," said Angelica Tanner, as her son, 6-year-old Johnathan, lay listlessly in the bed next to her seat. It was their 15th hour at Summit Hospital, in a unit run by Children's Hospital Oakland.
Each year, asthma attacks send tens of thousands of California children to the emergency room. Some of the patients face such severe and enduring symptoms that they are admitted to the hospital for days. In 2010, the state had more than 11,000 such admissions, costing an average of $19,000 apiece.
Exposure to pollution has long been a concern for families across the Bay Area, from the waterfront industries in Oakland and Pittsburg to the oil refineries in Benicia and Martinez to the clogged freeways that traverse the South Bay and Peninsula. In Alameda County, the asthma hospitalization rate -- 20.3 stays for every 10,000 children -- is nearly twice the state average and the third-highest in California, next to rates in Imperial and Fresno counties. Some Oakland neighborhoods sent children to the hospital two or three times as often as that.
These visits aren't just costly for society and the social safety net. When a child lands in the hospital or ER, it often means his asthma is out of control, a state of chronic inflammation that could compromise his health for years to come. An asthma misery index of sorts, these numbers reveal how many kids are missing out on school, physical activity and other hallmarks of a healthy childhood.
And all because of a disease that doctors say is largely treatable.
"I think it's every pediatrician's core belief that with adequate therapy, with early intervention, that the vast majority -- 80 to 90 percent -- of emergency department visits and hospitalizations could be avoided," said Dr. Ted Chaconas, a pediatrician who directs the hospitalist program at Children's Hospital Oakland.