Austin's Story
Tina, Ohio
It has been 1 year since my grandson Austin nearly died as a result of senseless vaping. My daughter Abby and I are both nurses. How could this happen right under our noses?
Austin had started smoking cigarettes despite constantly getting mad at his Dad for ruining his lungs! Multiple times his Dad required hospitalization for diseased lungs. Family members got upset with Austin & asked him to STOP smoking! We adults agreed that vaping would be LESS harmful. - after all it was just water vapor, right?
For weeks we saw him decline & then we had to fight for his life. He went from a state level high school track hurdler and weight lifter at 180 lbs, 6 ft tall to not being able to function. Austin looked like a walking skeleton. He lost 25 lbs in less than 2 months and was in and out of hospitals. I can not stress enough—the trained medical specialists DID NOT know what was happening to Austin.
Austin’s initial concern was gastrointestinal. He was not hungry and couldn’t eat or digest food. He had heavy nausea & diarrhea. Next came low-grade temps. These problems were subtle but grew to be constant in a short time. He could not work a full shift at his job. He could not sleep. He thrashed about in bed spiking high temps of 103. He would chill then break out in a sweat that soaked through his clothes & bedding. To compound things, Austin had a headache that grew out of control.
Austin’s breathing was irregular & fast. At times his chest was heaving at 40+ breaths per minute (healthy people breath 12-20 breaths per minute). He struggled to get more air. At that point, it did not hurt to breathe but in a week’s time, his chest x-ray was cloudy indicating possible pneumonia. He started having pain with breathing, describing it as “burning.” Vaping is a chemical burn to the deep lung tissue components that exchange oxygen. The lung tissue is damaged by inhaling the chemicals in a vaping product. The tissue dies and the damaged lung tissue cannot absorb oxygen even if a ventilator is pushing rich oxygen into the patient’s lungs.
Austin's headache worsened. It grew to be so intense he was unable to sleep, thrashing in bed. He experienced near seizure activity. At first he got pain relief with meds but that did not last. Heavy pain meds did not control his head pain. He was given IV migraine meds and even tried IV Caffeine but it did nothing for his headache. A spinal-tap was done to “rule-out“ possible Meningitis which can cause brain death rapidly. That test was negative-PRAISE GOD!
There were multiple trips to our county hospital ER. Then came the first trip to the nearest trauma hospital because of his intolerable pain. His body hurt everywhere because of inflamation. His appendix looked concerning on the CT scan. Surgery was done to remove an “inflamed appendix” - not a diseased/ready to rupture one. But finally his headache was gone. The Neurologist felt the anesthesia allowed his body to totally relax, ending the head pain. The Neuro doctor also said he had seen this type of headache just a few times in his career of 30 years. He felt it was a “chemically induced headache.” Nobody was putting all the pieces together. We told every doctor that we were concerned about his recent vaping habit and we talked about how fast his overall health had declined.
The night of surgery, his heart became irritable. A normal adult pulse rate is 60-80 beats per minute. Austin’s heart rate jumped as high as 180 beats per minute & as low as 40 beats per minute. The question was WHY? The staff did not pick up on his heart changes but I did. It was very clear on the monitor. After politely demanding a supervisor look things over, they realized the alarm settings on his monitor were not picking up his changes. Alarms were re-set which then revealed my concerns. We compared his earlier monitor readings to the ones concerning me & then staff too saw the problem. His heart was growing more irritable. Prior to surgery, Austin had chest pain, chest pressure & shortness of breath. Now he had this crazy heart rhythm. We requested a cardiology consult but instead was sent home because his headache was gone! The surgeon & hospitalist felt surgery had corrected things. All other testing could be done outpatient. We were unhappy, extremely frustrated & totally exhausted. We still didn’t know the root problem since his appendix was not diseased. We are 99% sure Austin was their first vaping patient in our extended region. The staff thought we were the crazed mother & grandmother. With Abby’s 20 years as RN and as a Masters Degree-Nurse Practitioner & my 34 years of RN experience which includes ICU & Cardiac, staff knew we brought good knowledge to the table but only a few truly listened & understood our concerns.
Less than 48 hrs after discharge, Austin’s health took a huge nose dive. We went back to our small local ER. A CT chest scan was finally done and it showed POPCORN LUNG. Austin’s diagnosis on our next trip to the same trauma center was RESPIRATORY/DISTRESS, RESPIRATORY FAILURE.
Care flight was not available so he traveled 25 minutes by squad very fast. This time Abby refused for Austin to be admitted to hospitalists previously dealt with. Instead he was directly admitted under the receiving Pulmonologist who was waiting for Austin to arrive. They worked all night to manage his breathing, try to manage the headache & rehydrate him. The only goal was to keep him breathing on his own & as a last resort, place him on a ventilator. The sedation he needed to be on a vent and help his body to relax, might also cause his body systems to not work at all. How could this be happening? Everything was wrong & out of control.
Only by the GRACE of GOD did Astin get through that night. There were no open ICU beds so he was on a step-down pulmonary unit with ICU & trauma team members coming to check on him. And, that happened only because the crazy family members (Abby & I) were being way too demanding. I recall a young guy coming into Austin’s room & saying, “we need to better understand your concerns.” And, “what do you need us to do that we have not already done?” His job was to find a clearer path of communication. We wanted them to save Austin’s life!!!
By now we had requested family, friends, churches, co-workers, FB contacts & anyone to please pray for Austin. He was mentally unable to comprehend how ill he was which was a blessing. We had to fight for him. He would have died if we hadn’t stayed with him. We pulled deep from our faith. It was an extremely painful time. We realized GOD was over-seeing things & in charge because nobody else was! We grew peaceful realizing we knew it was becoming a WIN/WIN situation. If GOD called Austin home to him, he would not suffer a minute longer. If we got to keep him, we believed GOD’S healing hand would take over.
Abby received a phone call from another mother whose son was at a children’s hospital with Vape Lung. She had seen Abby’s FB post and gave permission for Abby to speak with the Pediatric Pulmonologist directly. That hospital had a few Vape patients already. He explained what they were doing and why. Time is not on your side if there is a growing need for a ventilator. Each minute is priceless. ACT FAST! Call on any & all resources you have in your medical community. Even when you are being told “that is not necessary” stay focused & persistent. Abby knew the Pulmonologist that had taken over Austin’s care. She explained what she learned in detail and a plan was made.
Austin was started on traditional “septic protocol” with IV fluid and a couple IV antibiotics including Vancomycin. At the same time he was started on IV steroids. If Austin had been Septic (diffuse infection) and IV steroids were given it would have likely killed him. The Pulmonologist asked Abby a couple times if she understood the risk and she said YES.
National standards for lung disease in hospitals were backwards as to how Vaping Disease should be treated. Now it is known to lay patients flat and not wean oxygen unless >96%. Also all are now treated in ICU settings due to rapid declines. Abby did not leave Austin’s side all night. The lung doctor compared Austin’s oxygen status to an elderly person who has severe lung disease. Later he told Austin that he looked like a chemical factory worker that was in the plant when it blew up. That is about when the medical diagnosis of Evali ( E-cigarette or Vaping Associated Lung Injury) was approved nationally.
Slowly he came back to us. His temp went down. His overall body pain & headache eased up. He was extremely irritable & just hateful. Much of this was severe high dose nicotine withdrawal, IV medications, plus waking up to learn what had all happened. His Dad provided great relief during this time frame. Austin stayed in the hospital six more days.
Today, his weight has returned. He has regained his solid muscle mass. He is back to work & functional. He still struggles mentally knowing his actions were so damaging & expensive. Most of all it hurts him knowing what he put his family through. While he has stayed healthy, the long term effects are not known. And with the Covid epidemic, we all remain concerned that it could cause more problems for him.
Abby and I have been educating the adults in the schools. There have been lots of discussions regarding punitive measures for the kids, Then, during one discussion a superintendent boldly stated & I quote, “our kids are ADDICTED to whatever they are vaping if they are using between &/or during classes”. This is absolutely true!
The materials/substances in vapes are concentrated & highly addictive which causes rapid illness as we saw in Austin. Our state lawmakers need to have the facts and pass laws of protection for our kids NOT the tobacco companies!