One day when Oliver Nguyen-Lopez was about six months old, he stopped breathing. His frantic parents administered CPR until the ambulance arrived.
The medical emergency was caused by an allergic reaction to the whooping cough vaccination, which most babies tolerate. He stopped breathing on three more Bruoccasions during the next six weeks, pulling through because of his parents’ quick action and hospital care.
“I didn’t emerge unscathed,” he says. “Because of that lack of oxygen to my brain I learned new things slower and with more difficulty compared to my old self and others.“
In school he compensated by focusing intensely on tasks and working extra hard. New tasks took longer to learn, but he challenged himself and never made excuses, he said.