Doctors suspect vaping behind dozens of lung illnesses in U.S.
NEW YORK >> As many as 50 people in at least six states have come down with breathing illnesses that may be linked to e-cigarettes or other vaping products.
No deaths have been reported, but at least a few have come close.
Some patients have likened onset of the illness to a heart attack, and others to the flu. Symptoms have included shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain and vomiting. Doctors say the illnesses resemble an inhalation injury, with the body apparently reacting to a caustic substance that someone breathed in.
Dr. Melodi Pirzada, a pediatric lung specialist at NYU Winthrop Hospital in New York, said she’s seen two cases this summer — one of them an athletic
18-year-old who almost died. “We’re all baffled,” Pirzada said. The only common factor was they had been vaping, she said.
Wisconsin health officials on Thursday said they’re seen 15 confirmed cases, with another 15 illnesses under investigation. New York state officials are investigating
10, Illinois has seen at least six, and Minnesota doctors this week said they have four more. California and Indiana have also been looking into reported illnesses.
Health officials have only been counting certain lung illnesses in which the person had vaped within three months. Most are teens, but some adult cases have also been reported. No single vaping device or liquid is associated with the illnesses.
Dylan Nelson, a 26-year-old Wisconsin man, went to see a doctor when he first became ill. He has asthma, was diagnosed with pneumonia and was treated and released.
Within a few days, he could barely breathe. He went to a hospital and was put on a breathing tube. His two brothers kept a round-the-clock vigil over him in the ensuing days, and at one point one called his mother to the hospital, saying: “Mom, I don’t think he’s going to make it . ... He can’t die without his mom.”
He rallied and was released from the hospital late last month.
But “he still has lung damage and heart damage,” and doctors still don’t know how much they’ll heal, said his mother, Kim Barnes of Burlington, Wisconsin.