“Since the drinking age is 21, what is a 19-year-old (at most) doing working in a bar?”
Bingo.. first of all what was she doing there, Second of all.. if she had asthma SO BAD that a whiff of smoke would put her in an early grave.. what was she doing IN a bar instead of a plastic bubble.
Local law apparently allows people under 21 to work in bars. In some states, Oklahoma for instance, a person under 21 can’t even go into a store where alcohol is sold.
It seems from the reports that the young woman was in denial about the seriousness of her asthma: she wasn’t taking the basic precautions a reasonable asthmatic person would. In my family, we call this kind of thing “died of stupid.”