Breathe right: Proper treatment keeps asthmatics on playing field

By Joe Simon

New Castle News

The last football game of Richie Conti’s sixth-grade football season nearly was the last one of his life.

Conti, now a starting offensive and defensive lineman for New Castle High, almost didn’t make it to varsity football. His team was playing Neshannock in a youth league game, and at halftime he started having trouble breathing. Before he knew it, Conti was enduring a full-fledged asthma attack, a condition he didn’t even know he had at the time.

“I had no idea,” he said. “We were in the end zone at halftime, going over some plays, making some adjustments, and I started feeling short of breath and dizzy, and I just went down.”

Luckily, the team trainer, Mark Kirkwood, noticed the symptoms and explained to Conti what was happening to try and calm him down. Kirkwood brought an inhaler to the game, and within seconds, Conti was breathing regularly again.

“It definitely opened my eyes up a little bit,” said Conti, now a senior for the ’Canes. “I wanted to play the rest of the game. I really didn’t know what was going on at the time.”

Conti is one of numerous of athletes in the Lawrence County area who deals with asthma on a daily basis. They’re not alone. The number of Americans suffering from asthma has increased to record numbers over the past decade, according to a recent story by the New York Times. The report noted that nearly one of 10 children now has asthma.

Raeburn said Conti is one of three New Castle football players who suffers from asthma, along with Terrell Cleckley and Latrell McKnight. Current New Castle trainer Randy Raeburn said the fall and winter months are especially difficult for asthmatics because the air is drier. He makes sure to constantly look for symptoms and to have their inhalers readily available.

“Basically, you have to look at them and see the color of their lips and face because they can turn a little purple,” said Raeburn, who’s been an athletic trainer for 32 years. “Their alertness becomes decreased. Confusion can happen. When it gets real bad, their pulse gets rapid. Then they’ll get severe shortness of breath, and they start sweating. That’s when they really get into a bad stage of it.”

Remarkably, Raeburn said he’s never dealt with a severe asthma attack. He said a basketball player had a minor episode two years ago, but he was able to quickly remedy the problem.

Neshannock trainer Barb Kennard hasn’t been so lucky.

She was at a track practice about seven years ago, and an athlete started having shortness of breath after running some sprints at the end of practice. Kennard said he started to panic and was struggling to stay conscious. She called an ambulance, and the boy eventually pulled through and recovered. Kennard said it’s vital to try and keep a person calm when he or she is having an attack.

“A lot of times they just start throwing themselves into a panic because they feel like they’re going to have an attack,” she said. “So if you can calm them down, usually they’ll be all right.”

Staying calm is easier said than done. Those who have asthma know the helpless feeling that can engulf a person during an attack.

“It’s like trying to breathe through a straw,” Kennard said.

An attack is the result of an airway constriction caused by inflammation of the air passage, something that can be triggered by allergies (pollens, animals, foods, etc.) or excessive exercise, said Kennard, now in her 19th year as Neshannock’s trainer.

Conti’s episode was a sports-induced attack, a feeling he hopes never to endure again.

“You can’t breathe, and then you get real nervous,” said Conti, who had to use his inhaler daily before he was able to control his asthma. “It hasn’t been bad since sixth grade. I used to have to take it every day. And as I started playing, I backed off a little bit. Then it just became that I only needed it when it got real bad.”

Raeburn said late in the football season is a prime time for asthma, as are track and baseball, which get under way in March and April as spring is just beginning. He and Kennard agreed the best measures to take to avoid an attack is to regularly monitor someone during sporting events and to always have an inhaler nearby. They said the condition usually can be controlled with regular doctor visits and proper precautions.

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Asthma cases continue to grow ...

Even with all the technology and medical breakthroughs, the cause of asthma remains somewhat of a mystery.

New Castle High senior Richie Conti didn’t even know he had asthma until he suffered an asthma attack during a football game in sixth grade. Teammate and fellow senior Terrell Cleckley just found out he had asthma a few weeks ago after he was having trouble breathing at training camp.

While the cause of the condition is unknown, the symptoms and effects have been studied and well-documented.

“It’s inflammation of the airway, and the airways can start to close if the lining of the air passage swells up,” New Castle athletic trainer Randy Raeburn said. “That’s when the inhaler comes in handy. It opens up the airways.”

Raeburn has three inhalers lined up in his medical kit in case Conti, Cleckley or Latrell McKnight, who also suffers from asthma, have an attack. He said there are a few different triggers for asthma: a change in weather, exercise and allergies.

“You have to watch out when they’re exercising — when they’re doing the wind sprints and when they’re playing — because that is what usually makes them short of breath, and it can get worse if they keep going,” he said.

One famous athlete found that out the hard way. Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis suffered an asthma attack during a nationally televised game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1997. Bettis has become a national spokesperson in fighting the condition.

Understanding when an attack might occur is important to preventing an attack. Late fall, early spring and winter are especially tough times for asthmatics because the air is drier, said 19-year Neshannock athletic trainer Barb Kennard. And these days, even more people need to be aware.

The New York Times recently reported that people suffering from asthma is at an all-time high. The reasoning is unknown, yet the report said several potential factors are being researched, such as different allergens, automobile exhaust fumes, pesticides and certain plastics, along with obesity and other health-related issues that could be another component.