Debra Kaufman is on a crusade to keep other parents from suffering the horrible loss of a child due to asthma. It's been five years since her son Doug died at age 19 from the lung disease.
"I didn't know someone as healthy as my son could die of asthma," she says. "Now I want to make sure everyone who will listen understands the severity of asthma."
Even Kaufman, who was board chair for the American Lung Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties in 1997 and has been involved with the association since her son attended asthma camps years ago, didn't realize the lung damage that can occur in children who seem to have only mild asthma.
"Even though my son's asthma was never that bad, it had significantly damaged his lungs," she says.
One November night, Doug dashed inside the movie theater where he worked and ran up a flight of stairs. Ten minutes later he died from a coughing attack that was so bad he couldn't breathe.
"Doug was a fighter, so I know he would want me to get out and educate others about asthma, and the need to fund more research and find a cure," Kaufman says. "So that's what I'm doing."