Texas Vaping Victims

[niman]

This thread will be used for Texas vaping victims.

[niman]

Whitney Livingston

 

After making the switch to vaping in order to try and quit cigarettes, the 17-year-old Texas teen decided to ditch both — but not soon enough.

The night she put down her vape for good, Livingston started to run a fever that eventually developed into pneumonia in both lungs. Livingston was put on life support at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, where her mother, Jennifer Audas, told Fox 4 News on Sept. 10, “she could have almost died.”

“The doctor said it looked like no pneumonia he’d ever seen,” she continued.

Audas said at the time that there has been no major progress with her daughter’s condition, but she is showing some improvement. They are not sure what long-term damage she may have.

https://people.com/health/vaping-related-illness-stories/

 

[niman]

Tryston Zohfeld

Neither Zohfeld nor his parents knew just how severely damaged the Texas teen’s lungs were until they suddenly failed on July 26, 2019. 

“I woke up just throwing up everywhere, and my heart was beating out of my chest going 100 miles an hour,” Zohfeld told ABC affiliate WFAA.

His family rushed him to the Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, where he was eventually hooked up to an oscillatory ventilator that kept him alive for 10 days while doctors searched for a diagnosis. It wasn’t until a family member revealed that Zohfeld had been vaping regularly since the 8th grade that doctors were able to connect the dots.

Dr. Karen Schultz, a specialist in pediatrics and pulmonology, told WFAA that she believed the chemicals Zohfeld was inhaling from the vape pen caused his lungs to inflame to a point where they couldn’t exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide anymore. She added that his habit had scarred his lungs, according to CBS.

After 18 days in the hospital, Zohfeld was able to go home. He believes he was “definitely given a second chance.”

“This is really what could happen [from vaping] and it’s not something to look over,” he told WFAA. “They’re not as safe as you think.”

His family has started a GoFundMe page to help with the costs of his hospital stay, and with his upcoming rehabilitation program.

https://people.com/health/vaping-related-illness-stories/

[niman]

 

Sherie Canada

This Texas mom wrote a candid testimonial about how her experience with vaping landed her in a medically-induced coma and nearly killed her after she contracted multifocal pneumonia, severe sepsis and acute respiratory failure with hypoxemia (ARDS).

“I got very sick around June 9th with stomach flu like symptoms,” she wrote on Facebook on Sept. 6, 2019. “I couldn’t hold any fluids down, I took everything you could imagine over the counter, tried drinking fluids but couldn’t keep them down, I was severely dehydrated.”

Days later, on June 12, 2019, she was rushed to the hospital with low oxygen and blood pressure levels.

“[Doctors] did a cat scan and [it] showed my lungs were full of fluid and [my] blood [tested] positive for blood clots,” Canada said. “I was so scared but more than anything in so much pain.”

Her condition continued to deteriorate, and on June 18, doctors made the decision to put her in a medically-induced coma.

“I was absolutely terrified that I was never going to wake back up and see my boys, family or friends again! I remember leaning over to my mom telling her just how tired I was of fighting and just couldn’t fight no more,” she said.

While she was sedated, doctors removed four liters of fluid from her lungs and she was brought out of the coma two days later. Canada was placed on a ventilator for three days afterwards and wrote that she “woke up a whole new woman with a whole new perspective in life.” She promised she would live life differently and “never take advantage of my lungs, a breath, again.”

https://people.com/health/vaping-related-illness-stories/

Edited October 7, 2019 by niman

[niman]

 

[niman]

'I came very close to death': Vaping lands Texas A&M student in ICU

 

 

By Nick Natario

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- As the CDC investigates a vaping epidemic, a Texas A&M student said he knows the dangers too well after e-cigarettes put him in the ICU.

After a year and a half of vaping, Hunter Sims said he's finally had enough.

 

"Don't do it right now," Sims said. "Not at all. It's horrible for you, and I came very close to death, and I'm lucky."

Last week, he was rushed to the hospital. After spending days in the ICU, his family feared the worst.

"They were very close to putting him on a ventilator," his mother Dawn Sims recalled. "He was not breathing well on his own. At one point one night, they put lots of ice packs on him to lower the temperature."

Hunter isn't the only vaping case health officials are looking at. The Brazos County Health Department said it's investigating two suspected vaping cases.

In the city of Houston, three cases have been confirmed. In all, more than 450 cases across the country has led the CDC to call this a "vaping epidemic."

 

"There does not seem to be any antidote, any magic bullets to reverse this," said David Persse of the Houston Health Department. "It's supportive care, getting the patient through the critical period, and letting their body heal itself."

Experts said this could be tied to THC being illegally added to vaping liquid, or vitamin E. They said parents should look for signs of fatigue and cold-like symptoms. They also added vaping is bruising lungs, which is something they've seen before with chemical leaks.

"That's probably the closest thing that I could relate it to," Persse explained. "The difference is, when we have a chemical release, the neighbors and the people nearby who do have problems, they have it pretty quickly. This seems to take several days."
Health experts said around 20 percent of high school seniors have experimented with vaping, which is something Sims wishes he never attempted.

"It's almost every kid," Sims said. "It's an epidemic. It needs to stop. I think the FDA needs to crack down before this gets worse."

 

E-cigarettes are regulated. The ingredients are tested, and minors can't buy them. In fact, just 10 days ago, the legal age to buy these products went from 18 to 21 years old in Texas.

https://abc13.com/health/texas-a-m-student-said-e-cigarettes-landed-him-in-icu/5529514/

Edited October 7, 2019 by niman