Written by Vanessa Santilli for the Ontario Lung Association on Nov. 9

Gabriel Roosevelt-Jackman was a tiny three-week-old baby when he made his first am- bulance trip to the hospital emergency department. Parents Daniel and Ann thought it was a bad cold but Gabriel actually had a serious respiratory infection — and severe allergic asthma.

The Roosevelt-Jackman family (from left) Lahreena, Daniel, Gabriel, Ann, Solomon and Callista. (Photo by Vanessa Santilli)

Now 13 years old, Gabriel’s asthma is so difficult to control that it often prevents him from participating in his favourite sports – basketball, soccer and football – something that doesn’t usually happen to children with less severe asthma. His seven-year-old brother Solomon’s asthma is less problematic but even he knows that he’ll have to miss out on gym if he doesn’t have his emergency inhaler. “Sometimes, I really want to have the chance to grow out of it,” says Solomon.

For the Roosevelt-Jackman family, having two children with asthma means visits to the respiratory clinic at SickKids every two weeks, lots of medication and lots of uncertainty about when the next asthma flare-up might occur.

It also means keeping a close eye on the weather forecast. “If I go outside and it’s really hot, it will affect my breathing and then I’ll have to go to an emergency room,” Gabriel explains. Cold weather has the same effect.

Solomon’s case is different. He was fine until the age of two when mould in the family’s apartment triggered the onset of asthma symptoms. At recess recently, Solomon started to have difficulty breathing – and he had forgotten his inhaler. Ann was stuck on the train, feeling helpless. “But he said he drank some water and he breathed in and out and it calmed him down.” It’s incidents like this that Ann describes as the “little scares.”

The boys’ biweekly visits to SickKids are for tests that measure how well the lungs are functioning. Gabriel also gets two injections because of the severity of his chronic asthma and other allergies.

Ann says she worries about Gabriel taking so much medication but she realizes that there are no viable alternatives, especially since he also has multiple food allergies including soya, kiwi, seafood and nuts. Daniel and Ann have no respiratory problems and neither do their two daughters, Lahreena, 10, and Callista, 16.

“It’s heartbreaking,” says Daniel. “We are actively doing everything, the doctors are actively doing every- thing but…there are so many sources that can cause a flare-up. It’s so tough to control.”

Still, through the years of treatment and visits to the clinic and the emergency department, the members of the Roosevelt-Jackman family have learned to cope, to support each other and to be happy. “Despite the challenges, we are blessed,” says Daniel.