As many as 50 people in at least six states have come down with breathing illnesses that may be linked to e-cigarettes or other vaping products.
No deaths have been reported, but at least a few have come close.
Some patients have likened onset of the illness to a heart attack, and others to the flu. Symptoms have included shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain and vomiting. Doctors say the illnesses resemble an inhalation injury, with the body apparently reacting to a caustic substance that someone breathed in.
Dr. Melodi Pirzada, a pediatric lung specialist at NYU Winthrop Hospital in New York, said she’s seen two cases this summer — one of them an athletic 18-year-old who almost died.
“We’re all baffled,” Pirzada said. The only common factor was they had been vaping, she said.
