“Coach Fitch, I have my son’s inhaler in his bag in case he has an asthma attack.” This has become a common statement by parents at our basketball camps.
Have you ever seen anyone have an asthma attack? I have. It is scary to see a child have trouble breathing. I felt helpless. When I started coaching 20 years ago, there were very few kids that even knew what asthma was. Now, we have multiple kids in every camp that are diagnosed and dealing with asthma. It has become part of our camp protocol for counselors to make sure that everyone’s bag with an inhaler and medicine is safe. We will have multiple bags now during camp session. This experience tells me the number of kids impacted by asthma has grown dramatically.
Seeing a child suffer through an asthma attack makes an impact on you. There are not many injuries you deal with in basketball that seem like life and death. To witness a real attack and see a child not be able to get enough air into their lungs makes you realize the seriousness of asthma. To see kids, from ages 7 to 18, try to manage their asthma with inhalers and medicines has been a real eye opener for me. Even my most responsible kids have a tough time keeping their asthma under control.
Therefore, when I first heard about ADAMM, I immediately became interested.
I had the privilege to coach a young man that was a very talented basketball player. This young man was one of the best players on the court during his sophomore and junior years in high school. The problem was I could only play him about 4 minutes at a time and then he would have to come out of the game to catch his breath. We finally figured out that he was having a tough time controlling his asthma. With lots of training, by his senior year, he was able to play the whole game which allowed him to be recognized and eventually receive a scholarship. I cannot help but think what he would have been able to accomplish if he had ADAMM. The data that ADAMM could have provided his parents and his physician would have been so valuable.
ADAMM’s technology – especially the wearable, which can be worn undetected by others, helps kids by making managing symptoms easy, so they are more prone to be proactive, and that’s powerful. I would be a lot more relaxed heading into my summer camps if I knew every child that was dealing with asthma was wearing an ADAMM device.
Scott Fitch has been a basketball coach for 20 years.
