A Young Athlete's Breathing Problems Weren't Asthma. What Were They?

The problems started when Reese Tempest entered sixth grade. She had always loved running, but now her track team training was triggering severe breathing difficulties.

"I gutted it out and cried all the time. One race, I even passed out," recalls Reese.

Justin Tempest, Reese's father and junior high cross country coach, and her mother, Cameron Tempest, first blamed the heat and humidity in Virginia and seasonal allergies. Her pediatrician gave her a basic spirometry test, which examines air exhaled, and diagnosed Reese with exercise-induced asthma. But Cameron — who had experienced asthma as a collegiate swimmer — wasn't convinced. Her daughter's symptoms were different, and they weren't improving with inhalers.

So they brought her to the University of Virginia's hospital for a complete pulmonology and cardiac work-up and a VO2 max test.