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In this photo of Monday, July 29, 2019, Dylan Nelson of Burlington, Wisconsin, and his sister, Andrea, have an interview. In June, his sister took him to hospital urgently because of severe respiratory problems. Doctors think that he and about two dozen other young adults have been seriously injured in the lungs after spraying nicotine or THC, or both. (Rick Wood / Sentinel Journal of Milwaukee via AP)
NEW YORK – In at least six US states, at least 50 people have developed respiratory illness that can be linked to e-cigarettes or other vaping products.
No deaths have been reported, but at least a few have approached.
Some patients have compared the onset of the disease to a heart attack and others to the flu. Symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain and vomiting. Doctors say the illness resembles an inhalation injury, the body apparently reacting to a caustic substance that someone has breathed.
Dr. Melodi Pirzada, a pediatric respirologist at NYU Winthrop Hospital in New York City, said she saw two cases this summer, including an 18-year-old who nearly died.
"We are all confused," said Pirzada. The only common factor was their vaping, she says.
Health officials in Wisconsin said Thursday they have seen 15 confirmed cases and 15 other diseases under investigation. Officials from the state of New York are investigating 10 people, Illinois has seen at least six and Minnesota doctors have reported four more this week. California and Indiana have also studied the reported diseases.
Health officials counted only certain lung diseases in which the person had emptied within three months. Most are teenagers, but some cases of adults have also been reported. No vaping or liquid device is associated with diseases.
Dylan Nelson, a 26-year-old man from Wisconsin, went to see a doctor when he became ill. He is suffering from asthma, pneumonia, has been treated and released.
In a few days he could barely breathe. He went to the hospital and was put on a breathing tube. His two brothers looked after him day and night on the following days and one of them called his mother to the hospital and said, "Mom, I do not think he'll get there. … He can not die without his mother. "
He rallied and was released from the hospital at the end of last month.
But "he still suffers from lung and heart damage," and the doctors still do not know how much they will heal, said his mother, Kim Barnes of Burlington, Wisconsin.
E-cigarettes have been described as a less dangerous alternative to regular cigarettes, but health officials have worried about children using them. Most concerns are about nicotine, which health authorities say is damaging to brain development and could make children more likely to take cigarettes.
But some vaping products contain other potentially harmful substances, including flavoring chemicals and oils used to vapolize marijuana, experts said.
Wisconsin officials did not know the name of the products that the patients had sprayed, but they added that they could include several substances, including nicotine and THC – the main active chemical of marijuana.
Dr. Anne Griffiths, a specialist respirologist who reviewed the four cases reported in Minnesota, said everyone sprayed different products.
"I really think the main cause of these diseases is what has been inhaled," said Griffiths of Children's Minnesota.
Among the many questions: why are the cases just surfacing now, while electronic cigarettes have been used for years and are now used by more than 10 million Americans?
According to Griffiths, it is possible that diseases were previously associated with vapor inhalation. She said she found several similar case reports published in medical journals.
"I feel that it is not new. It's new that we recognize it, "she said.
Nelson's mother is convinced that vaping is to blame.
She added that her son's friends continued to run out of breath, even after understanding what had happened to him, as they did not destroy the brand of THC cartridges that he had used.
"Everyone is running out of steam. They are all vaping. And they all think it's not dangerous, "said Barnes.
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