Walker's Story
David & Candace, Florida
Eight weeks into Walker’s first semester of college at Florida Atlantic University, where he was awarded a scholarship as a cheerleading athlete, he got sick with what we thought was just the flu. After four long days and calling us several times a day telling us how terribly sick, he was, he drove himself home to Orlando. He collapsed in our arms and we quickly realized he was far sicker than we ever imagined. On March 8th, we took him to the local community hospital with high fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, delirium, and chest pain. Subsequently, a chest x-ray showed a large, very strange softball sized pneumonia in his left lung. He was immediately admitted under ICU care.
The doctors were confused and concerned as he continued to steadily decline over the next few days, we decided to have him transferred to the best trauma hospital in town, Orlando Health. We were very, very scared and could not believe this was our healthy, athletic son that had never had anything substantially wrong with him. We were watching him slip away day by day, with 105 fevers, shaking like he was blasting off in a rocket, trying as best as he could to breathe using two forms of high flow oxygen. He was holding my wife’s hand telling her he loves her and that he is trying to breath after two chest tubes now placed in his left lung.
Even the best trauma physicians, who have seen it all, were completely perplexed how this healthy, athletic, 6’2”, 200lb young man could be so, so sick. They were all looking for an underlying cause, like an acute form of cancer, that could explain the severity of his condition. They had no idea, we had no idea, never thinking vaping could be an underlying cause. Also, to add to the challenge of Walkers extreme situation, he had caught an extremely viral Adenovirus, the kind that all military personnel are vaccinated for, in his dorm and this virus was aggressive.
The doctors held off as long as they possibly could, but Walker was emergently, medically paralyzed, and intubated on Saturday March 16th. The next day, the doctors thought they had things under control but late Sunday afternoon, this horror story became our worst nightmare. As our country celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, our son was dying as all the machines in his room began to alarm, despite all attempts the doctors could not push enough oxygen into his lungs. The hospital chaplain was called and stood in the room speaking out loud the Lord’s prayer. We were paralyzed with fear, how could this be? How? No, No No!!! He was fine only a few days ago.
The doctor ran out of the room, bypassed all standard protocols, and called for an emergency transfer to Advent Health in Orlando for Walker to be placed on ECMO. He had to hold on for 17 more minutes, his Mom, Aunt, and I stood above him praying over him, begging him to hold on till the helicopter could fly him to Advent Health.
My large family had gathered in the cardiovascular operating waiting room when we heard the helicopter land. We all lined up against the walls as the team ran Walker’s lifeless body passed us stopping just for a moment to let both his Mom and I kiss him goodbye before taking him back to the operating room. Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation was our last hope to save his life, since everything else had failed. Late that night the cardiovascular transplant physician told us Walker had survived the surgery and his oxygen saturation was now 99%.
He was then moved to the Advanced Cardiac Unit, the highest level of intensive care that can be provided in the country. We were so grateful, scared, and horrified all at the same time. Walker lay lifeless for almost 30 days, 12 different tubes coming out of various parts of his body keeping him alive. Both the ventilator and ECMO on the highest possible settings they can be on to push oxygen in his lungs and pull off the CO2.
Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, Walker spent an incredible 63 days on this unit beating extremely poor odds by living. His Mom stayed by Walker’s bedside everyday while I spent every night at the hospital. As the weeks passed, Walkers kidneys no longer were functioning, and his lungs were not improving despite all interventions. Physicians began to talk to us about the need for double lung and kidney transplant. The nightmare continued; how could this be? How is this happening to my son? The pain so intense I would rather be gutted with a knife daily than watch my son fight this battle to live every day.
Soon the transplant physicians began to talk to us about vaping asking if Walker was doing it? This is when we began to put the pieces together as the doctors were telling us what complications they are seeing from other vaping cases. They spoke of an odd affliction called popcorn lung that comes from vaping. This is also the time when we began to read about other young males getting this awful pneumonia and dying from vaping. Some of these cases began exactly like Walker’s except he was still alive, and some were not so blessed.
Through this ordeal, Walker lost over 80 pounds, all muscle tone. He could not move his own legs, pick up his own arms, he could not hold his head up, could not sit up and certainly could not stand. He had to relearn everything, even how to speak and swallow. After 63 days he is one of the longest patients to ever successfully survive ECMO. He was eventually moved to the cardiac ICU where he spent another 2.5 months continuing the fight.
After a total of 131 days of ICU care, Walker was able to come home. He was the known throughout the 1400 bed hospital as the “miracle man”. This was a win not just for us but for the hundreds of people who loved and cared for Walker every day. Today, the fight continues for Walker. He remains on oxygen 24/7, dialysis three days a week, has neuropathy in his feet, takes over 12 different medications, two different inhalers which he uses three times a day and sleeps on a bipap machine every night. He goes to physical rehab twice a week and seen regularly by over 5 different doctors.
Once Walker became aware and conscious, which was around June, we learned he had begun to seriously vape in late fall 2018 only three to four months prior to getting sick. After trying Juul the first time, he quickly became addicted within a week. He mainly used the mango flavored and occasionally mint/menthol flavor when he could not find mango. You see, the addiction to nicotine surpassed his desire for a flavor. The few months that he continuously vaped did so much damage to his lungs, the lings could not fight off the Adenovirus, a severe version of a common cold, that tried to kill him.
Where do we go from here? Over the next year or two, Walker will need a kidney transplant and a second surgery to remove his entire left lung because it is completely fibrotic. His medical bills total over 6 million at this point. Who knows how many more millions will be spent trying to save his life from the damage caused from vaping?
After an extensive and successful career as an RN and healthcare executive his mother is no longer able to work but must stay at home and care for Walker 24/7.
This horrendous trauma has turned our family upside down and inside out to say the least. Only through our deep faith in God’s grace and lots of support from our Christian community have we survived. We are horrified that the FDA permitted these products to be sold on the open market prior to being certified safe. We are very sad and heartbroken for the many that have lost their lives and thousands of families that have been and will be affected. Please do not delay in taking immediate and severe action to halt further damage to our youth. The future of our great country.