Hope Carnevali Credit:Facebook Health Minister Jill Hennessy, who commissioned the Inspector-General for Emergency Management to review the emergency response, said the thunderstorm asthma event could not have been predicted, but that work was underway to create new models to anticipate the effect of extreme weather on health. "Unpredictable weather patterns and the impact on health I think is a new emerging frontier for public health risks," she said. The National Home Doctor Service sent doctors to more than 100 asthma sufferers between Monday night and Tuesday morning. Doctor Mark Hotusaid he arrived at 16-year-old Angelique's Altona home about 4am Tuesday after she had woken up "unable to breathe" and been turned away from hospital. He sent her back to hospital with a note for a doctor to see her immediately and she was finally admitted.

Omar Moujalled On Wednesday morning, Ms Hennessy said there were two confirmed deaths - 20-year-old law student Hope Carnevali and Greenvale high-school student Omar Moujalled. But within hours, the grieving families and friends of two other men spoke of their loss after thunderstorm asthma struck. Mr Leo, a bouncer, was well known in Melbourne's nightclub scene. His business partner, Andrew Christodoulou, described him as a "gentle giant". Apollo Papadopoulos Credit:Facebook/apollo.pap Friend Danny Saddoo remembered Mr Leo as a doting father and husband and "a really lovely, kind-hearted man". He said he suffered a "massive" asthma attack at 4.30am on Tuesday and died before paramedics arrived.

Mr Papadopoulos' sister, Bianca Becker, said her brother was "the best man you'll ever meet. We're devastated." Clarence and his wife, Amanda Leo. Credit:Facebook/Theystillcallmekaleve His mother, Emma Papadopoulos, said the "chaos" she witnessed at the hospital on Monday night was unlike anything she had ever seen. "I can't believe the amount of people there that were having problems breathing," she told Channel 10. Charles Guest, chief health officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, would not comment on the number of fatalities, saying the department was aware of a "number of deaths" that may be associated with the event. He declined to comment further until a cause of death had been "attributed" for these cases.

At least eight people were still in intensive care on Wednesday evening. It is understood one man is in a critical condition after suffering a cardiac arrest during the thunderstorm asthma. Hospitals were inundated with more than 1000 people seeking help on Monday night after the sudden change in weather triggered respiratory problems in people across the city. There were almost 2000 calls for ambulances in five hours and about 30 people were admitted into intensive care units. Sunshine Hospital was one of the worst hit, with 18 ambulances banked up in the early hours of Tuesday morning as crews frantically worked on patients. A Western Health spokeswoman said it was "unheard of" to have that many ambulances waiting outside the suburban emergency department at one time. After-hours clinics and pharmacies were also swamped with patients as they struggled to treat people with dwindling drug supplies.

The Age spoke to 10 Melbourne late night pharmacies, six of them completely sold out of Ventolin on Monday night. Staff at 24-hour Mill Park Superclinic described the night thunderstorm asthma hit Melbourne as like "a bomb had gone off". Ambulance Employees Australia acting general secretary, Danny Hill, said ambulance crews were flat out during the emergency. "It's almost the equivalent of a major terrorist attack," he said, adding that crews reported the system functioned well. "So while there would have been quite a lot of ramping across the city [paramedics] were pretty happy the crooker patients got dealt with quite quickly." Asthma Foundation Victoria chief executive Robin Ould said he would write to Ms Hennessy calling for an action plan to deal with future asthma events. But asthma sufferers also needed ensure they were managing their condition, Mr Ould said. "We need to make people aware of what their own triggers are so they can manage their asthma."