In the day's first dim light, Gabe Trujillo tries to move his arms and legs. First the left leg, then the right. The right arm, then the left. Every morning, it is the same. But he can't move them.
People talk about asthma like it's no big deal.
After all, a hundred times as many people die of cancer every year. But asthma put Gabe motionless on this bed. Gabe was paralyzed after one of the worst asthma attacks his doctors have ever seen a child survive. His latest diagnosis is Hopkins' syndrome, in which a virus attacks the motor cell bodies inside the spinal column. Doctors think the rare virus either triggered Gabe's 1997 attack or preyed on his weakened body afterward.