Every episode, even asthma, has the potential to be fatal. That is made abundantly clear by the untimely and terrible passing of 12-year-old Ryan Gibbons. Ryan was a lively young man who enjoyed riding motorcycles and going on hikes in the woods, but he would soon die from a deadly error. He had an asthma attack at school back in 2012. At the start of the incident, he could have easily utilised his inhaler, but the life-saving tool had been stolen.
Ryan Gibbons, a 12-year-old seventh-grader, attended school on October 9 as usual. But he wouldn’t go home that day.
While playing football at school, Ryan had an asthma attack and couldn’t get to his rescue medication, which was kept in the school office. The child in pain needed his inhaler to clear his airways so he could breathe.
However, spare inhalers were frequently taken away from Ryan because it was the school’s policy to keep the inhalers locked in the principal’s office. During the attack, Ryan’s buddies attempted to take him to the office, but they were unable to reach the inhaler in time. Ryan fainted and was never brought back to life.
A whole country was rocked by the catastrophe that happened at the Elgin Country School in Ontario, Canada. An investigation revealed that, despite his mother’s persistent attempts and a doctor’s note, Ryan’s school did not permit him to keep his puffer with him. In order to get around this regulation, Ryan would frequently carry an additional inhaler to school, according to his mother Sandra Gibbons.
Keeping the inhaler locked in a room is risky, because asthma attacks aren’t always anticipated. However, the school continued to confiscate Ryan’s additional inhaler.
According to Ryan’s mother, she received multiple calls from the school requesting that she pick up an inhaler that Ryan had brought to class. He was not permitted to take it home. Sandra Gibbons told CBC, “You would give him an inhaler, but he would get caught with the inhaler and then it would be taken away.”
After that, I would receive a call. In fact, it was rather annoying. I couldn’t figure out why. I was unaware of the policy’s explicit requirement that the prescribed medication be kept in the office. Thankfully, Ryan’s untimely demise wasn’t in vain. Since Ryan’s passing, his mother has promised to do all in her power to spare another family from experiencing what she did.
