Asthmatics fear for their lives

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: It started as a slight sore throat but ended with her being rushed to the hospital and admitted.
B. Shayamala Devi had spent Monday running errands in Seremban, all the while breathing in the smoggy air.
By the end of the day, she had a scratchy throat and a runny nose.
That night she could not sleep and by 6am the next day, she was feeling so awful, her husband had to take her to the clinic.
"My throat was really burning and my nose was runny. There was also a tightness in my chest," Shayamala Devi, who has been able to keep her asthma under control in the last three years, said.
A doctor at the clinic put her on a nebuliser, but two hours later she was having breathing difficulties again.
This time, the 39-year-old part-time insurance salesperson knew she had to go to the hospital.
Her worried husband rushed her to the hospital as her breathing became more laboured.
"I was put on the nebuliser every five hours and slowly, the tightness in my chest subsided.
"The phlegm is still there but I’m so glad to be home now," she said.
Shayamala Devi is a casualty of the haze, her doctors told her.
"During the earlier haze, I did not feel anything, but this time around, it is so bad.
"My 12-year-old son also has asthma and I am more worried about him but so far he is okay."
Discharged yesterday after spending three days in hospital, she is not looking forward to stepping out of her house.
"My kids’ final exams are next week and I will have to go out and send them for tuition and to school, but if you give me a choice, I definitely will not do any sightseeing right now."
For Elizabeth Chrisostom, every time the haze season comes around, she says goodbye to good health.
"The doctors told me I have to fight it this time and I cannot let it take over," said the 40-something clerk who was discharged on Wednesday after spending six days in the hospital after suffering from respiratory problems.
"I am so traumatised. I cannot do this again. Why can’t somebody do something?
"Nobody seems to take us asthmatics seriously enough."