One Child's Story

Meet Yaxche Onofre of Daly City. By the time he was three years old, the lively, brown-eyed youngster had been in and out of hospital emergency rooms 11 times. Whenever his breathing became labored or an ear infection sent his temperature soaring, his mother would rush him to the nearest hospital emergency room. Unsure of his condition or how to treat it, she would wait until his symptoms became so severe that he needed a hospital.

"All I knew was that something was wrong," says his mother, Edith Rodriguez, who moved here from Mexico with her husband six years ago. "I felt so guilty because it was my fault, and I couldn't make him well." That changed after a Sutter Health-affiliated pediatrician diagnosed Yaxche with asthma and referred his family to the Asthma Education Program at St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco. The program provides free asthma education to children, parents and teachers.

The St. Luke's asthma program helps low-income families in San Francisco's Mission District reduce the severity of asthma symptoms, lower the number of emergency room visits and minimize the time away from work or school due to asthma.

When Rodriguez was first referred to the program at St. Luke's, she had many questions about her son's condition: "What is asthma? How do I take care of him? Will he have a normal life?"

Rodriguez got answers from the St. Luke's asthma education coordinator, Julie McKown, who explained clearly why Yaxche needs his medications, how to use his inhaler and how to avoid asthma-inducing environments. She supplied Yaxche and his mother with asthma devices, instructional booklets and videos in English and Spanish.

Today, Yaxche's mother says she feels "so relieved" because she now understands how to properly manage her son's asthma.