Ruth Fitz Harris from United Kingdom

My son began having wheeze (probable asthma) attacks during a very intense heatwave in London during 2018. He had two life-threatening attacks that summer, other severe and less severe ones. The following year he 3 and the year after that 2. He has missed months of nursery. I have struggled to get back to work. It has been very frightening for both of us. He has had over 30 hospital appointments, probably the same number of doctor's appointments. It has made it really hard to work, which as a single parent is a really big problem. I have also witnessed another boy have a life-threatening asthma attack in the hospital bed opposite. He deteriorated so quickly and so badly that around 15-20 staff rushed in, emptied the ward of other patients, he was taken to an intensive care unit. Witnessing this, along with seeing my son struggle to breathe has left me with post-traumatic stress disorder. People don't realize what an asthma attack looks like and what it takes to recover. You can't sleep because you are coughing, vomiting from coughing and have to have medication intravenously as well an inhaler at such frequent intervals that you can't rest.