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Lavonte Smith, 8, sucked in a deep lungful of air, then blew all of it out for as long and hard as he could through a tube, the measurement popping up on a computer screen above his head.
That sounds like a simple task. But for children like Smith who suffer from asthma, being able to take a deep breath is not always guaranteed.
On Monday, the third-grader at Anna Yates Elementary School in Emeryville was one of the first students to visit the Breathmobile, a rolling medical clinic in a specially outfitted Vanhool bus. The clinic is filled with medical supplies, computers and equipment — such as the computerized spirometer that measured his lung capacity — that accurately test for asthma.
Nurses and respiratory specialists gather each child's asthma history and measure height, weight and blood oxygen levels at different stations before having them breathe and expel air into the spirometer. A doctor then meets with the child's parent or guardian to review test results and go over treatment options and methods for controlling asthma symptoms, at no cost.
The goal is not to replace regular medical care but to augment it and try to reduce emergency room visits, said Jennifer Louie, a pediatrician at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in Fremont and a rotating doctor on the Breathmobile.
"Emergency room doctors don't always have time to perform these tests because they are seeing so many patients," she said. Louie trained at
Lavonte Smith lives on Campbell Street in West Oakland, an area sandwiched between two freeways and adjacent to the Port of Oakland, all of which contribute to poor air quality. More than 20 percent of children and 37 percent of adults living in West Oakland have asthma. Children who live there are seven times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than other children throughout the state.
The Breathmobile will serve schoolchildren in San Leandro, Berkeley and Oakland, visiting about 23 schools a month. The van will return every couple of months to follow up with its patients, said Washington Burns, executive director of the Prescott-Joseph Center in West Oakland, which launched the Breathmobile program in Northern California. There are about a dozen vans operating in four counties in Southern California, and the program has been credited with reducing school absenteeism and emergency room visits.
Layawonna Kennon accompanied her 5-year-old son, Thai Cornelius, a first-grader at Anna Yates, to Monday's appointment at the Breathmobile. Thai first was diagnosed with asthma about three years ago, when he repeatedly came down with pneumonia in the winter. Kennon said Thai missed so many days at his former school last year that the administration would not let him come back.
Missing school also is a problem for Lavonte, whose cousin and father also suffer from asthma, said his grandmother Sandra Cheeks. "When it's bad, he misses a lot of school, but we're hoping this year we don't have that problem," she said.
Jaguanana Lathan, Anna Yates' principal, hopes for that too.
"Attendance for kids who have asthma, especially in the winter, is really bad," she said. "They come to the office to use their asthma (inhalers), so we see a lot of them don't have their asthma under control."
Reach Cecily Burt at 510-208-6441. Check out her blog at www.ibabuzz.com/westside.
