Mary Williams of Gloucester, has been dealing with asthma since high school, when she had a bout of bronchitis and pneumonia, but the respiratory illness never before impacted her the way it did one night last month, when her life was suddenly on the line. A maintenance technician for an apartment complex, Williams was working a side job with her friend Staci Spies, owner of On Point Salon at Hayes. The two had spent three nights painting an empty house to pick up some extra money and were in the process of cleaning up amid the paint fumes and cleaning chemicals. Relieved that the job was almost over, they were joking around and laughing. But through it all, Williams was struggling. As the night wore on, she began to have trouble breathing. She used her nebulizer once, then a second time. Usually the treatment clears away mucus, and she starts breathing more easily, but that didn’t happen this time. She told Spies it didn’t seem to be working, that her throat felt like it was closing u...