Respiratory problems intruded into Chantal’s life when her daughter was only five weeks old. That night, Charlie-Ann suddenly had trouble breathing and was diagnosed with a bronchial infection. It was an unsettling experience and one Chantal would have preferred to have put behind her for good. But this first ordeal only set the tone for what the next three years would bring.
The subsequent asthma attacks occurred frequently and unexpectedly. To deal with them, Chantal would hold Charlie-Anne up against her all night long, hoping the vertical position would stabilize her condition. Whenever their techniques didn’t work, it meant yet another trip to Sainte-Justine. And the resulting panic for her parents at the thought of not being able to control these episodes.
Thrust into a whirlwind of constant stress, fatigue and powerlessness, both parents were on the verge of burning out, never entirely sure if she would survive the next attack.
Each attack put us into crisis mode. Every time, we wondered whether she’d make it through the night
That is how it was until they met Dr. Francine Ducharme, a pediatrician and researcher specializing in childhood asthma. “She was so calm, caring and knowledgeable and helped us see things more clearly. Before that, it was all so uncertain. She helped put everything in context and reduced our anxiety levels. With her guidance, we developed a step-by-step plan to reduce the frequency and severity of the attacks, and manage them when they did occur. We learned how to administer certain drugs to cope with emergency situations at home. That meant we didn’t have to go to the hospital as often and didn’t have to endure the sleepless nights we had become used to over time,” Chantal recalls.
Dr. Ducharme was a source of security and comfort for us when our stress levels would go through the roof
Now nine years old, Charlie-Ann still has asthma, but it is effectively controlled by medication. She leads a normal life and even plays soccer without any restrictions. Incidentally, the word “control” is an important one here: asthma is a chronic disease that cannot be cured, at least not just yet… although there is a glimmer of hope.
A better solution on the horizon?
Forward-thinking and results-oriented, Dr. Ducharme is one of the specialists in this field who are paving the way for further research so that a cure can eventually be found for young asthma patients. She and her team are actively involved in a number of research initiatives focusing on the development of new, child-friendly lung function tests, a better understanding of why some children grow out of their asthma to benefit the children who do not, the prevention of the long-term lung damage caused by asthma and the use of vitamins to boost asthma drug efficacy.
One of the downsides of all of the proposed solutions at this point is their dependence on medication, which, along with air quality, represents the only option for stabilizing the symptoms of the disease over the long term. For children, administering daily doses of drugs over a potentially long span of time represents a challenge in and of itself, both from a practical standpoint and in terms of parents’ psychological well-being.
Moreover, a large number of asthma-related visits to the ER are due, at least in part, to discontinuing or forgetting a prescribed medication. “It’s tough and very nerve-wracking to have to administer drugs to a child every day, but they are still our best hope for preventing long-term adverse effects and even increasing a child’s chance of remission,” says Dr. Ducharme. “Working directly with a specialist is extremely reassuring for parents. Open and honest communication with the child’s doctor is key in this regard.”
In an effort to address this problem, more and more steps are being taken to make it easier to administer asthma drugs as prescribed, such as taking the time to properly explain why they are necessary, to monitor their effects with objective lung function tests, to test medication formulated as a single daily dose, and to explore new technologies designed to monitor the number of remaining doses and send electronic reminders.
What your gifts do
”Generous gifts from our donors have helped us create an array of measurement tools tailored to young children, finally enabling us to test new medications, highlight and address problems specific to them, and prove that new therapeutic approaches are sufficiently promising to warrant government funding”, says Dr. Ducharme.
It snowballs from there: for every $1 we receive in donations, we can go out and get $10 in public funds.
One of the main reasons Sainte-Justine is a leader in treating pediatric illness is the combination of research and patient care under the same roof. The expertise of the hospital’s researchers and specialists is vital in maximizing health outcomes for young patients like Charlie-Ann.
To be able to continue to develop new and groundbreaking treatments and further medical advances in chronic conditions such as asthma, researchers need donors to step up to the plate and help them turn their ideas into reality.
