A team of doctors at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit performed a double lung transplant on a 17-year-old boy who’s lungs were irreparably damaged due to vaping. The child and his family have requested anonymity at this time as they focus on recovery. They did, however, ask doctors at Henry Ford to share their story in the hope it may prevent others from incurring similar injuries.
In a statement, the family said, “We asked Henry Ford doctors to share that the horrific life-threatening effects of vaping are very real. Our family could never have imagined being at the center of the largest adolescent health crisis to face our country in decades.”
The statement then went on to thank the team of doctors and hospital staff that helped their son.
The patient, who was 16 years old at the time, was admitted to the hospital on September 5, 2019, with pneumonia-like symptoms. Within a week his conditioned deteriorated and he was intubated.
The teen’s doctors reached out to the Henry Ford transplant team on October 3, 2019, and less than a week later he was put on a transplant list.
Due to the severity of his case the young man rose to the top of the transplant list and underwent surgery on October 15, 2019. “This teenager faced imminent death had he not received a lung transplant,” Dr. Hassan Nemeh, Surgical Director of Thoracic Organ Transplant at Henry Ford Hospital said in a statement.
As of this writing, nearly 2,000 cases and almost 40 deaths have been associated with this vaping-induced lung disease. As Parentology has reported, the cases have caused concern at the national level, leading the CDC to conduct an investigation to determine the exact causes behind the disease.
Several states, including Michigan, have banned various forms of vaping products. Nemeh was quoted as saying the inflammation and scarring found in the patient’s lungs prior to the transplant “were like nothing I have ever seen.”
“This is a preventable tragedy,” Nemeh said. “And we have so much respect for this family for allowing us to share their pain to prevent the same from happening to others. The damage that these vapes do to people’s lungs is irreversible.”