"Health is too important to be left to doctors alone. If we adopt the definition of health as not only the absense of disease, but complete physical, mental, emotional and social well-being, health becomes a social issue, not merely a medical one." Ernest "Dutch" Morial January, 1981

Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial, New Orleans' first African-American mayor, was one of the millions of Americans with asthma. Diagnosed at the age of 35, he learned to tolerate the disease, but considered it as more of an inconvenience. Although he sought care and improved, Mayor Morial would soon forget that disease management was the only way to protect his health. At age 60, in December of 1989, asthma finally overtook Dutch Morial, ending his life.

Recognizing the severity of the disease and the toll asthma can take on patients, their families, and the larger community, the Morial family has decided to fight back. Together with Louisiana State University Medical Center, an asthma center has been created right here in Louisiana -- a center dedicated to patient education, advanced patient care, and to finding the answers that will eventually cure asthma -- The Ernest N. Morial Asthma, Allergy & Respiratory Disease Center at LSU Medical Center.