Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
CHLOE
One cold November morning, I woke up and took my inhalers.
[SPRAYING]
I do this every morning and every night before I go to bed.
[EXHALING]
I went to school as normal. I had my maths lesson in the morning. Then we went out for our break. Normally, I would run around with my friends and play. But I have to be careful of running around in the winter months, as this can affect my asthma. So instead, I sat down on the bench watching my friends play dodgeball.
After a while, one of my friends came up to me and asked me to play with them. I completely forgot about my asthma. And it looked like they were having so much fun. So I got up to join them. I ran around with them for the rest of the break and stopped as the bell rang.
[BELL RINGING]
Out of breath, I slowly walked to my next class.
[PANTING]
As I walked through the building, I realised I was struggling to catch my breath. My chest was pounding and my heart was beating rapidly.
[HEARTBEAT]
I went to where my inhaler was kept in the classroom, and the teacher sat me down on a chair as I was having another asthma attack – the second one that month. I took out my inhaler.
[SPRAYING]
But this didn’t seem to make any difference to my breathing, which was getting out of control. I couldn’t catch my breath. I was struggling to breathe. My face turned a pale blue colour.
[GASPING]
It felt like I was trying to climb a mountain with a heavy backpack on, going nowhere. The teacher looked worried, and I was panicking. Before I knew what was happening, I was being carried off to the front office as an ambulance had been called for me.
[SIRENS]
I could hear the sirens getting closer. Then I was put into the back of an ambulance. At this point, I felt like I was being strangled by a heavy rope around my neck, squeezing tighter and tighter. I was gasping for air. I just couldn’t breathe.
When I was in the ambulance and when I arrived at the hospital, I was given a nebuliser, which is a machine with a tube coming from it that leads into a mask which was put over my face. Through the machine, liquid medicine is sprayed into the mask for me to breathe in.
[WHOOSHING]
Very slowly, my breathing returned to normal.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Having an asthma attack is a very scary experience. When it was all over, it felt like a miracle, like I was in a dream. I could breathe again. I was so happy.
[ON-SCREEN TEXT Drawings and Voice Over by Chloe, aged 11]