Mother of boy who died from asthma attack at school pushes for policy change

The unnecessary death of a child is always tragic but the manner of Ryan Gibbons' demise seems like the stuff of a parent's nightmares.

The 12-year-old Ontario boy suffered a severe asthma attack while playing soccer at his school in the village of Straffordville.

But under Ontario school policy, he wasn't allowed to carry an emergency inhaler of asthma medicine. It had to stay locked up in the principal's office.

His mother, Sandra Gibbons, told The Canadian Press Ryan probably panicked as his friends were carrying him to the office to get the inhaler. He blacked out and later died, his inhaler behind that locked door.

"To this day I really don't know how exactly the whole day unfolded for him," she told CP.

Since her son's death in October 2012, Sandra Gibbons has channeled her grief into ensuring this doesn't happen to anyone else.

According to Statistics Canada, more than 2.3 million Canadians suffer from the disease, more than 40 per cent of them in Ontario. The Asthma Society of Canada estimates about 500 Canadians die from the chronic lung disease each year, 20 of them children.

[ Related: When rules trump common sense: Tim Hortons denies asthmatic teen access to phone to call 911 ]

There's no apparent province-wide policy on managing students' asthma, though the National Post reported many schools treat asthma puffers the same as other types of medication students might need, such as Ritalin, which is used to treat attention deficit disorder.

"But there is an obvious difference between Ritalin and Ventolin; the latter is a fast-acting medication that can save a life, particularly when time is of the essence," the Post's Robyn Urback said in a commentary Tuesday. "It is baffling that school administrators should keep both behind the same lock and key."

Gibbons started a petition calling on school boards to implement standardized asthma-management plans. And she is urging all three parties in the Ontario legislature to support private member's bill introduced by Progressive Conservative MPP Jeff Yurek, CP said.

"Unfortunately, I stand here today trying to get this bill – Ryan's Law – in place so that nobody else has to feel how I feel every day, and that's missing my son," said Gibbons, who created a Facebook page to promote her fight.

The bill would, among other things, allow asthmatic students to carry their own inhalers. Gibbons said staff at Ryan's school repeatedly confiscated inhalers he brought with him.

"Provided the doctor said it's fine for them to have the puffer they will have a spare puffer somewhere in the school, probably the principal's office, but they will have [another] puffer in their pocket or in their bag, however they feel comfortable having it, but it will be on them at all times throughout the day," Yurek told CP.

"Hopefully we can take an important step toward ensuring a tragedy like this never happens again."

Other jurisdictions that have wrestled with the issue have swung towards letting students carry their own inhalers. A 2004 paper published by the U.S. National Institutes of Health said American federal law may require the practice where there is no state or local policy.

[ Related: Three Ways to Prevent an Asthma Attack While Exercising ]

Pennsylvania, for instance requires schools to develop written policies that allow school-aged children to carry and use their inhalers if they're deemed capable of managing their asthma symptoms themselves.

In Britain, students apparently are allowed to carry their inhalers, but a debate arose over providing emergency inhalers in school first aid kits in case a child's inhaler was empty or missing.

Yurek's bill in the Ontario legislature is likely to pass, Urback wrote in the Post. Liberal Health Minister Liz Sandals expressed her support during the second-reading debate, CP said, but added there may need to be more comprehensive legislation to cover other medical conditions such as anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal allergic reaction.

"There really does seem to be good evidence that, as soon as the child is able to manage their own medication, it's important that they have the puffer or the EpiPen on their person," said Sandals.

"Staff should know how to recognize and manage worsening symptoms and asthma attacks."