Krimson Leah Hughey was a happy 26-year-old, one class away from getting her bachelor’s in business administration from Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Ohio.

A devout Christian, she dreamed of starting a ranch in Texas where she could minister to troubled girls. She even had a name picked out: “Hatikvah,” Hebrew for “the hope.”

On Feb. 25, 2007, she had an asthma attack.

Just 12 days before, Krimson switched from a rescue inhaler that used chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, to a new one that used FDA-endorsed hydrofluoroalkane, or HFA.

Krimson never complained to her parents about her Proventil HFA inhaler but told a friend’s mother she didn’t think it was working well for her. In frustration, she threw the inhaler in the trash during the attack after it didn’t bring her relief. She tried a nebulizer. But that didn’t work either.

Krimson’s condition worsened. She implored her mother to “do something” and told her she was dying. Maureen Hughey urged her daughter to stay alert, to “stay with us.” Her daughter’s reply was simple and devastating:

“I can’t.”

About 4,000 people die from asthma in the U.S. annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Medical professionals say it can be difficult to isolate a complicating factor from the primary condition.

Krimson’s parents blame her switch to an HFA inhaler. Nothing else changed, they said, that could have made their daughter worse.

Julie Lux, spokeswoman for Schering-Plough, maker of Proventil HFA, said in an e-mail the company is aware of the case and its “sympathies go out to the family on the loss of their daughter.”

Lux said patient safety is the top priority and that the company investigates and reports cases involving deaths to the FDA. Lux declined to discuss fault in Krimson’s case, citing limited information and patient privacy.

But she said Proventil HFA delivers the same medicine, with the same effectiveness, as the CFC albuterol inhalers.

Krimson’s story is posted on the Save CFC Asthma Inhalers Web site.

“There are a lot of people suffering right now that need their (CFC) inhaler, that need to be able to breathe. … And these inhalers are not helping them,” Maureen Hughey said.

They advocate lifting the CFC inhaler ban but are skeptical about that happening.

“I don’t see it getting reversed,” Phil Hughey said. “But there’s a hope that somebody will be reasonable and give people a choice.”