The worst asthma attack I’ve ever had.

I’ve been wanting to write this out and share my story for a while. I finally did. Here’s the very true and very real story: It was February 15th. 2018. The day after Valentine’s Day (which fell on a Thursday.) I was a little depressed during that whole week. But that is beyond the point of this story.

During this time, I was working and living at a boarding school in San Diego CA. We woke up everyday at 6am and worked till 4pm. My trade was ‘plastering’ and I loved it! February 15th was a totally normal day. I woke up and went to class. That day I accidentally breathed in a small amount of cement mix while working which choked me up a little bit, but that was all.

I got through the day, just like I would any other day. That particular night, there happened to be a (day after) Valentine’s Day dance on campus. My two best friends and I showed up, and had some fun! We called it a night around 9:50 and all walked back towards our dorms. It was around 10:00pm when I hopped in bed. About 5 minutes later, I felt a cramp in my stomach. It wasn’t pleasant, so I went to the bathroom. I was on the toilet feeling constipated for a while. Suddenly I felt a tingle in my lungs. I instantly knew that I was about to have an asthma attack. I wasn’t worried because I have asthma attacks all the time. I got up from the toilet and walked into my room to grab my inhaler. I took the inhaler back into the bathroom and processed.

I took 4 squirts of my inhaler, expecting to feel better within 20 seconds (like I always do) but this time I wasn’t getting better. I was getting worse. Very very fast. It took two minutes after taking my inhaler until I knew that I’m in trouble. I was having the worst asthma attack I have ever had (and that’s definitely saying something.) I ran out of the bathroom over to the residential advisors office. When I got to his office, I couldn’t even take a 1/3 of a breath in. He immediately saw the inhaler in my hand and called out an emergency code within the schools intercom and then called 911. During this time, in my head i knew that I’m absolutely going to die. I knew I only had a couple minutes, because I was totally unable to breath. I was panicked but the whole time I stayed on my two knees. Time started to slow. I started to calm down. I felt a super lovely warmth inside my heart. I felt pure bliss. Then.... blackness. I have never been able to explain this blackness that overtook me. It’s literally, pure nothingness.

I suddenly woke up. It took me a second to realize what’s happening but my senses came back one by one. First my hearing. I heard the machines beeping and the doctors communicating. Then my vision. I see the white walls of the hospital and over 8 doctors/nurses surrounding me. Then my sense of touch. I realize that I’m connected to a ventilator and hooked into multiple IVs. My heart was racing but I felt very relieved.

I was in the hospitals ICU for 4 days and general ward for 2 more days. My prognosis was status asthmaticus which turned into acute respiratory failure/arrest. They lost all vitals for 12 minutes (breathing and heartbeat) and I woke up a couple minutes after hooking me onto the ventilator and administering epinephrine. This was an experience I think about daily. I hope this never happens again to me, or anyone else.