Sophomore overcomes disorder that taught her to never take breathing for granted.

In first grade, current sophomore Gabby Fontanilla had her first asthma attack during recess at Argonaut Elementary School. She had been running around with her friends playing a game of wall-ball.

According to Gabby, the first time she felt that pain in her chest and struggled to breathe normally, she started to cry. The more she sobbed and panicked, the harder it became to breathe.

When her friends noticed, they immediately dragged her to the office. Her mom, an employee at Argonaut, was called into the office. Hurriedly, she handed Gabby her Albuterol inhaler.

After a few puffs, Gabby calmed down. 

“It was easily one of the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced,” Gabby said. “The combination of crying and not being able to breathe was horrible.”

Gabby was diagnosed with asthma in kindergarten after a case of pneumonia had severely weakened her lungs and resulted in her missing a month of school. As a first grader, she knew that she had asthma but had no idea what is was. 

“I thought having asthma was cool because it made me special,” Gabby said. “I didn’t think of was that big of a deal, just a name.”

Gabby is one of many who suffer from asthma. According to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), around 255,000 people worldwide die of asthma each year.

In case of an asthma attack, Gabby has carried her inhaler with her in her backpack every day at school. 

“It’s really come in handy, especially in PE class in middle school,” she said.

Fontanilla is naturally athletic. She does martial arts, plays volleyball and badminton, and runs a 7:10 mile. Nevertheless, her asthma has always gotten in the way when she does sports. 

“I used to run a super cardio day, about 1.5 miles, in PE and then have to slow down or stop halfway through,” she said. 

The Fontanilla family — composed of four sisters — has learned to deal with the second eldest sister Gabby’s predicament. 

“We always have to watch out for what she does during sports,” her older sister junior Vicky Fontanilla said. “When she ran miles in PE, she would often be wheeled to the office where my mom would pick her up and take her home because she had an asthma attack.”

According to Vicky, Gabby’s asthma attacks usually do not only happen at school. “Three years ago, we were at a festival when Gabby had an asthma attack. It was really scary because she almost passed out,” Vicky said.

Because of her asthma, Gabby has learned to back away from over-exerting herself. As a result, she has lessened the overall number of asthma attacks she suffers. 

In the peak of her asthma, sixth grade, Gabby said she got asthma attacks a few times a month. 

“Now, I only  get asthma attacks when I push myself too hard or I stress out about something,” Gabby said.

Before middle school, Gabby only had asthma attacks when she worked herself too hard physically. However, when school got harder, her asthma worsened because of the stress level. She had an asthma attack the night before her first major social studies test in sixth grade, when she worried and did not know what to expect the day of the test. 

“I was really overwhelmed so I started to panic,” she said. “It became really hard to breathe, so I had to use my inhaler and I eventually calmed down.”

It took a lot of practice and persistence to decrease the severity of her asthma. 

“Slowly, I would run a little further or practice a little longer to get my body used to that length of time,” she said. “Each time I got more used to it, it decreased the amount of asthma attacks because it helped my lungs adjust faster.” 

With long years of practice, she has become used to living with the condition. 

“People really need to know is that asthma isn’t some stupid wheeze-disease, but it’s really a disease that causes a lot of people to die every year,” she said. “It has taught me not to take life for granted because one of those people easily could have been me.”