Shocked! I'm just shocked!

Relief for Severe Asthma, at a High Price
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR

For two decades, Patricia DiGiusto struggled with severe asthma. Powerful medications and frequent use of her inhaler could not prevent repeated trips to the emergency room.

On one particularly bad night, Ms. DiGiusto watched from her hospital bed as doctors and nurses prepared to insert plastic tubing down her windpipe to help her breathe. Gasping for air, she was certain she would not survive.

“I’ll never forget that feeling,” said Ms. DiGiusto, 65, a speech pathologist in Braintree, Mass. “The feeling that I’m never going to see my kids or husband again and that asthma is finally going to get me.”

Two years ago, Ms. DiGiusto’s doctor told her about a new procedure called bronchial thermoplasty, the first non-drug therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration for patients with severe asthma. Moar