May 5, 2009 6:23 pm US/Central
Health Project Helps Identify Home Asthma Triggers
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Eashia Henigan, 9, suffers from asthma.
CBS
Tuesday is World Asthma Day and if you have asthma, you know it can be a debilitating health issue. In fact, one out of four kids has asthma in North Lawndale, a low-income community. That is almost twice the national average. Now, a local healthcare project is helping families identify asthma triggers in their own homes. CBS 2's Jim Williams went along for one in-home visit on the west side.
Rhonda Lay is a community health educator who is about to help a young mother who really needs it. Antoinette Henigan's 9-year-old daughter Eashia has asthma. Lay wants Henigan to do everything she can to keep her daughter healthy.
There were two parts to Lay's approach: one, to make sure Eashia's immediate health needs were taken care of, and two, to attack the triggers in the house.
Antoinette has all the medicine she needs, but there are asthma triggers in the apartment, like mold in the kitchen ceiling.
"Mold has little fuzzes on them that the child inhales," Lay said.
A hole in the living room wall allows mice in.
"The droppings and the urine and the feces from it, her daughter's inhaling them," Lay said.
Henigan and her mother Jimmie are paying $850 a month in rent for their apartment. They say the landlord is neglecting the place.
After CBS 2's Jim Williams called him and inquired if he was in the process of taking care of the problems in the apartment, the landlord promised to make the repairs right away.
The apartment is in North Lawndale where one in four children has asthma, according to health officials.
The Healthy Home, Healthy Child program holds landlords accountable, but also urges parents themselves to take responsibility.
Henigan says she has even more motivation to take care of her daughter since her nephew died of asthma three years ago.
"He was only 10 years old," Henigan said. "He didn't even get to live his whole life. But I want my child to live hers."
Henigan has to do some cleaning herself. And her mother smokes, though she says she smokes in a back room with the door shut; that certainly is not good for a child with asthma.
As for the landlord, CBS 2 will go back to the apartment next week to see if keeps his word.
To arrange an in-home visit where a health outreach worker can point out problems to protect children with asthma, call Healthy Home, Healthy Child at (773) 257-1031.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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