Representative Patrick Kennedy: Overcoming the Challenge
As the son of Senator Edward Kennedy and nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, Rep. Patrick Kennedy was born with a political spoon in his mouth. No typical family, the ever- rambunctious, robust, and competitive Kennedy children grew up under the media spotlight whether the news was good or bad.

But as the only child with asthma, Patrick didn’t exactly fit in. He couldn’t run 20 feet without wheezing, much less play touch football with his athletic cousins. And rather than risk the wafting smoke from the family barbeque grill, he sought refuge in his air-conditioned, sterile bedroom.

"I had goldfish instead of dogs, foam pillows on my propped-up bed, and air conditioning running constantly in the summer with the windows shut," Kennedy, now 34, recalls. A refrigerator in his room stocked ready supplies of injectable adrenaline, theophylline, and isoprel nebulizer solutions to treat his sudden, severe nighttime attacks.

"Back then, the pediatrician made house calls and he’d come with medicines that would help me breathe but leave me feeling wired and restless," Kennedy says. Too sick to play, too wired to sit still, he felt isolated, different, and lonely.

Kennedy remembers lugging his heavy nebulizer through airports, wondering if he’d make it through one family vacation without an attack. He logged so much time in the school clinic with nebulizer treatments, he got to know the school nurse better than many of his classmates.

During school recess, young Kennedy often watched from the sidelines, unable to keep up with the other kids who ran and jumped without coughing or wheezing. But rather than cave in to his asthma and be humiliated on the athletic field, Kennedy determined to shine.

"Even though I couldn’t run long distances, I was actually one of the fastest 50-yard dash runners in my class when I took my medicines," he says. His confidence and talent as an athlete grew with age, and he joined the swimming and water polo teams at Rhode Island’s Providence College.

Despite his triumphs in the pool, 20-year-old Kennedy continued to struggle with his asthma as an undergraduate student. He vividly remembers the frightening and sometimes life-threatening attacks that sent him to the emergency room nearly once a month. And when doctors found a tumor on his spine, it was back to the hospital again for a lengthy 12-hour operation.

"My health problems gave me sort of a fatalist view of things," he says. "I felt I had no time to waste with my life. I wanted to be part of things now instead of waiting to ‘grow up.’"

So at 21, Kennedy followed in his family’s political footsteps and ran for the Rhode Island House of Representatives. "I couldn’t compete on the ball field because of my asthma, but I wanted to see if I could compete in politics," he recalls. "I’d been limited my whole life and it was time to make the most of the abilities I did have."

He won that election in 1988, and now, 13 years later, Kennedy is making the most of his abilities as a successful congressman in his fourth term. With the help of allergy shots and daily medications, his asthma is finally under control and he’s determined to help others with asthma avoid the traumatic experiences he had as a child. He’s fought smoking in public places in his home state, battled a pollution-producing coal-fire power plant, and held local Asthma Awareness Days in Rhode Island to educate his constituents about asthma.

Kennedy also feels passionately about cleaning up the moldy, stale air children and teachers breathe each day in Rhode Island’s schools. "Teachers and students are getting sick in our schools," he says. "There are no national standards for making sure every school has healthy indoor air. We need to clean up the air and build new schools, and I’m going to fight for the money we need to do it."

Reprinted from Allergy & Asthma Health magazine, Fall 2001.