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Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Asthma and Anthony Shadid

How strange and sad for the NYT correspondent Anthony Shadid, who survived being kidnapped last year by a Libyan militia, to die in northern Syria from an asthma attack. From the Times’ story: Mr. Hicks said they squeezed through the fence’s lower portion by pulling the wires apart, and guides on horseback met them on […]

How strange and sad for the NYT correspondent Anthony Shadid, who survived being kidnapped last year by a Libyan militia, to die in northern Syria from an asthma attack. From the Times’ story:

Mr. Hicks said they squeezed through the fence’s lower portion by pulling the wires apart, and guides on horseback met them on the other side. It was on that first night, Mr. Hicks said, that Mr. Shadid suffered an initial bout of asthma, apparently set off by an allergy to the horses, but he recovered after resting.

On the way out a week later, however, Mr. Shadid suffered a more severe attack — again apparently set off by proximity to the horses of the guides, Mr. Hicks said, as they were walking toward the border. Short of breath, Mr. Shadid leaned against a rock with both hands.

“I stood next to him and asked if he was O.K., and then he collapsed,” Mr. Hicks said. “He was not conscious and his breathing was very faint and very shallow.” After a few minutes, he said, “I could see he was no longer breathing.”

 Can you imagine? That poor soul. I’m somewhat claustrophobic because I fear not being able to breathe. My sister Ruthie died from lung cancer, and suffered from progressive shortness of breath for two years, until her sudden death one morning from a pulmonary embolism. Had I been in her position, I would have had to have been on heavy anti-anxiety drugs, because the inability to take deep breaths would have panicked me. I believe it was a mercy that she died as she did, without having to endure the breath being crushed out of her, bit by bit, until the cruel and gasping end.
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