That’s when she started the Community Asthma Prevention Program of Philadelphia—CAPP for short. The program can make a big difference in a child’s life. Dr. Bryant-Stephens shared the story of one 14-year-old who had made many visits to the emergency department because of asthma attacks. In one year, he had to stay overnight at the hospital three times for treatment. To make matters worse, his friends didn’t understand asthma and they made him feel bad because he often couldn’t have fun with them. “All he wanted was to have a normal life,” says Dr. Bryant-Stephens. The teenager’s family signed him up for CAPP. An educator who specializes in asthma visited them in their home and helped identify what could trigger the asthma. The disease has many triggers, such as dust and cockroaches, but each patient reacts to specific ones. The educator taught the family how to clean the house to get rid of the triggers. The teenager also was forgetting to take his medicine regularly. When used properly, asthma medicines can keep the disease under control so Tyra Bryant-Stephens, M.D. Educating families about living with asthma Taking a breath is not always easy for children with asthma. Dr. Tyra Bryant- Stephens helps make it easier. She started a community program that teaches people what they can do to prevent asthma flare-ups. Asthma is a serious disease that affects a person’s airways. The airways can swell when they are irritated by something like smoke or cat dander. Sometimes the disease is so serious that children wind up at the hospital, gasping for air. Through her practice at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr. Bryant-Stephens noticed that many families were bringing their children to the emergency department to treat asthma attacks. A number of years ago, she decided that if families could get better information about asthma at home their children might not have to go to the hospital. Illustration by Carolina Fajardo, Hancock Healthy Times