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Michigan teen needed new lungs because of vaping

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  perrie-halpern  •  5 years ago  •  33 comments

By:   Erika Edwards

Michigan teen needed new lungs because of vaping
The 17-year-old boy "faced certain death if it weren’t for the lung transplant," doctors said.

How many more kids need to be sick or die before this product is removed from the market?


S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



A 17-year-old boy is believed to be the first person to receive a   double lung transplant   because of the vaping-related illness that has sickened thousands nationwide.

Doctors at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, where the teen was treated, said they had never seen such scarring on someone's lungs from vaping.

"This is an evil that I haven't faced before," Dr. Hassan Nemeh, a thoracic specialist at Henry Ford Health System, said during a news conference Tuesday.

The doctors refused to answer questions about what the boy had been vaping before becoming ill. Instead, they had one message: Stop vaping, whatever it is — just stop.

"We beg of you," said Dr. Nicholas Yeldo, a critical care physician with the hospital system. "We don’t want to be taking care of you next."

The boy's family chose not to give his name as he recovers from surgery. The family released a statement Tuesday, saying their lives have been "forever changed."

"He has gone from the typical life of a perfectly healthy 16-year-old athlete — attending high school, hanging out with friends, sailing and playing video games — to waking up intubated and with two new lungs, facing a long and painful recovery process as he struggles to regain his strength and mobility, which has been severely impacted," the statement read. The boy turned 17 while in the hospital.

The young man was admitted to Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit on Sept. 5 with what appeared to be pneumonia.

But when his condition deteriorated a week later, he had to be transferred to Children's Hospital of Michigan. There, he was hooked up to an ECMO machine, which takes over the job of the heart and lungs, pumping and oxygenating the body's blood supply.

It didn't work. His lungs were so badly inflamed and scarred that he needed new healthy lungs to survive.

The boy "would have faced certain death if it weren't for the lung transplant," Nemeh said.

To get the transplant, the boy needed to be transported again — this time to Henry Ford Health System. The problem was that he would die within minutes if he were taken off the ECMO to make the drive. Ambulances are not equipped with ECMO.

Yeldo described an intense scene as he and his team ran from one doctor to another to try to figure out how to get the teen to them as quickly and as safely as possible. In the end, they needed to switch him to a portable ECMO, which could be taken in the ambulance. They could only spare about eight to 10 seconds to make the risky switch from the hospital machine to the portable one.

On Oct. 15, doctors there were able to transplant healthy lungs from an anonymous donor.

191112-lung-xray-al-1530_f52e5da78b2b378 On the right, the boy's lungs were scarred and inflamed before transplant. On the left, the black areas show where air is now flowing into the lungs, post transplant. Henry Ford Health System

"We are forever grateful to the organ donor and their compassionate family for making the selfless decision to donate the gift of life," the boy's family wrote in the statement.

The young man will be transferred to a rehabilitation center, and, despite doing well, faces a long and arduous recovery.

Patients who have double lung transplants have a median survival of seven years after surgery, but the boy's doctors anticipate he may be able to beat those odds.

"We’re hopeful given his youth and progress that happens in the future that he will be alive and well for a long time," said Dr. Lisa Allenspach, director of the lung transplant program at Henry Ford Health System.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,051 cases nationwide of EVALI, as the disease has become known, a number that's sure to grow when the agency updates its weekly case count on Thursday. State health departments across the country are investigating hundreds more potential cases.

Investigators at the CDC reported a   breakthrough   last Friday, saying they had discovered vitamin E acetate in lung fluid samples of 29 patients from 10 different states.

Vitamin E acetate , an oil, is a synthetic form of vitamin E. It appears to be used as a cutting agent in THC e-liquid as a way to dilute the product. It's been found in half of the 419 THC product samples tested at the Food and Drug Administration. Patients affected by the illness have reported vaping both THC and nicotine.

As solid as the evidence is for vitamin E acetate as a source of the outbreak, it's likely just one of multiple causes.

The FDA has found other diluents, such as medium chain triglycerides and polyethylene glycol, in products. Medium chain triglycerides are sold in oil form as a dietary supplement, and polyethylene glycol is the active ingredient in over-the-counter laxatives.


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Kavika
Professor Principal
1  Kavika     5 years ago

What in the world is it going to take before people stop vaping?

We are reading about the worse cases. I would imagine that there is a lot of damage being done that is not reported. 

 
 
 
KDMichigan
Junior Participates
1.1  KDMichigan  replied to  Kavika @1    5 years ago
What in the world is it going to take before people stop vaping

I've looked in to this a little bit. I know a lot of people that vape THC, I even have a friend who legitimately makes THC vape pens.

From the beginning I wondered about the source of these vaping incidents, vapes have been around a while and all of a sudden you got kids that say they have only been vaping a year and they have issues. I don't think they are coming clean and telling their parents they are using black market vape oils. Let alone using some bullshit THC oils.

I had a guy selling 20 mg of thc oil for 20 bucks and it looked like some bogus crap to me and I know I can get some good oil from my buddy for 50 dollars for 20mg. I myself am not a thc vapor and when I see a dude in skinny jeans wearing a bitch biscuit vaping a big old cloud I want to punch them in the throat but i'm old and passive now and don't act on my initial impulses as I did when a youth.

256  

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
1.1.1  Kavika   replied to  KDMichigan @1.1    5 years ago

IMO no one should be vaping. The results are horrifying. 

A recent case in Florida linked below, the vape was purchased in a store not on the street and it wasn't THC. 

If the kid is telling the truth than the problem is a lot worse than we think.

 
 
 
zuksam
Junior Silent
2  zuksam    5 years ago

At least Tobacco takes decades to kill you.

 
 
 
sandy-2021492
Professor Expert
3  sandy-2021492    5 years ago

Median survival rate of 7 years after surgery, according to the article.  After all this, he has a tough and probably short life ahead of him.

Tragic.

 
 
 
It Is ME
Masters Guide
5  It Is ME    5 years ago

The "Procedure" was "Cool", but damn ....he must have gone to the front of the line real quick to get this procedure put in the "Media Hysteria" for-front . How many others that have been waiting in line for a "Lung" transplant before him, were bypassed ? jrSmiley_99_smiley_image.jpg

 
 
 
Paula Bartholomew
Professor Participates
5.1  Paula Bartholomew  replied to  It Is ME @5    5 years ago

I also would like to know how he moved up on the UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) list so quickly.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
6  Kavika     5 years ago

Another case in central Florida.

 
 
 
al Jizzerror
Masters Expert
7  al Jizzerror    5 years ago

This seed does have some interesting information:

Investigators at the CDC reported a breakthrough last Friday, saying they had discovered vitamin E acetate in lung fluid samples of 29 patients from 10 different states.

Vitamin E acetate , an oil, is a synthetic form of vitamin E. It appears to be used as a cutting agent in THC e-liquid as a way to dilute the product. It's been found in half of the 419 THC product samples tested at the Food and Drug Administration. Patients affected by the illness have reported vaping both THC and nicotine.

As solid as the evidence is for vitamin E acetate as a source of the outbreak, it's likely just one of multiple causes.

The FDA has found other diluents , such as medium chain triglycerides and polyethylene glycol, in products. Medium chain triglycerides are sold in oil form as a dietary supplement, and polyethylene glycol is the active ingredient in over-the-counter laxatives.

I know people who love their THC vape pens.  They think they're safe.  And they live in states where the THC pens are legal.

Just because it's legal does NOT mean it's safe.

THC may be safe, butt look at all of those nasty  additives.

I think it's time for me to publish an article about safer vaping.

 
 
 
Paula Bartholomew
Professor Participates
7.1  Paula Bartholomew  replied to  al Jizzerror @7    5 years ago

The only safe vaping is no vaping at all.

 
 
 
al Jizzerror
Masters Expert
7.1.1  al Jizzerror  replied to  Paula Bartholomew @7.1    5 years ago
The only safe vaping is no vaping at all.

I did NOT say "safe" vaping.

I said "safer" vaping.

I wrote an article about it butt I fucked up and published it in Mr. Frost's new group - Mike Hunt's Taco Stand.

I didn't realize it wouldn't be on the "front page" or even under my name under "columnists".

I tried to contact Mr. Frost butt he's MIA.

I guess I'll have to rewrite the article and publish in in SiNNERS and ButtHeads like I usually do.

Fuck!  This is gonna take a while.

 
 
 
al Jizzerror
Masters Expert
7.1.2  al Jizzerror  replied to  Paula Bartholomew @7.1    5 years ago

Okay.

It's my article "Safer Vaping" is now on the "Front Page".

Feel free to flame on me there.

Butt, please read the article first.

 
 
 
Paula Bartholomew
Professor Participates
7.1.3  Paula Bartholomew  replied to  al Jizzerror @7.1.1    5 years ago

Safe or safer, no vaping at all is the answer.

 
 
 
al Jizzerror
Masters Expert
7.1.4  al Jizzerror  replied to  Paula Bartholomew @7.1.3    5 years ago

Please read the article.

 
 
 
al Jizzerror
Masters Expert
7.1.5  al Jizzerror  replied to  Paula Bartholomew @7.1.3    5 years ago
Safe or safer, no vaping at all is the answer.

Here are two quotations from the article:

I know what you're thinking.  Vaping is destroying people's lungs.  Vaping is very dangerous.  I agree.
I don't claim that what I'm doing is "safe vaping", butt it is a safer way to get high.
 
 
 
Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
7.1.6  Ed-NavDoc  replied to  Paula Bartholomew @7.1    5 years ago

I smoked a pack and a half a day for 30 years before I decided to quit and used the patch in 2005. I quit after just one week on the patch and have not smoked since. I have heard a lot of people say they vape to quit smoking. Makes no sense to me as that is just trading one crutch for another.

 
 
 
al Jizzerror
Masters Expert
7.1.7  al Jizzerror  replied to  Ed-NavDoc @7.1.6    5 years ago
I smoked a pack and a half a day for 30 years

I had a two and a half a day habit (35 yrs) and my spine surgeon told me that if I didn't quit the bone grafts wouldn't work.  So I bought a box of patches.  I smoked my last cigarette as I approached the entrance to the hospital.

I was on a morphine drip after the procedure.  Whenever I had an urge to smoke, I just pushed a button that was hooked up to the IV.  The blast of morphine made my forget about needing a cigarette.  I never opened the box of patches.  I haven't smoked a cigarette since.  Of course I'm a junkie now (just kidding).

 
 
 
al Jizzerror
Masters Expert
8  al Jizzerror    5 years ago

From this seed:

The doctors refused to answer questions about what the boy had been vaping before becoming ill. Instead, they had one message: Stop vaping, whatever it is — just stop.

I wish they had revealed everything they know about what the poor kid was vaping.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
9  Buzz of the Orient    5 years ago

This article is two years old so there could have been changes:

Countries Where Vaping Is Banned (Or Heavily Restricted)

I suppose if vaping is banned in Canada and the USA new methods for endangering health or killing oneself will be invented.

I wonder if someone will produce a movie about vaping that will be a parody of "Reefer Madness".

 
 
 
sixpick
Professor Quiet
10  sixpick    5 years ago

If vaping gets banned, it should be easy to spot the offenders.  They should ban heroin, too.

First time I saw someone vaping, he was parked in a car with the window cracked.  I thought his car was on fire.

The problem with banning vaping is the same problem with banning heroin or any other illegal drug, except the giveaway with vaping is all that steam.  Personally, even if I vaped, with all this negative news lately, I'd have to stop until the steam cleared up enough to know what was behind all these people doing what appears to be permanent damage to their lungs at the very least.  Lord, I'd love to change the world, which reminds me of that song.  Ignore the part about freaks and dykes.  That was before it wasn't cool, you know.  Put your fingers in your ears during that part.

Oops, wrong video.  Here's the right one.  Can you believe it, people are protesting at the White House about the possible ban.

 
 

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