Following the sudden death of her 15-year-old stepson, a North Carolina mom is speaking out about the risks associated with vaping.
Severe Cough Out of the Blue
A severe cough had plagued teenage football player Solomon Wynn for a while until his family decided to get him off a ventilator in mid-June.
Charlene Zorn, Wynn's stepmother in Wilmington, said in an interview with Fox News, "We went to the primary care doctor because he had a bad cough. They diagnosed him with what they thought was bronchitis.
Antibiotics, steroids, and an inhaler were not helping Wynn, so his doctors recommended him to a pulmonologist. In April, after administering allergy tests and test X-rays to Wynn, the doctor concluded that he had been vaping, which he admitted to.
Wynn was a perfectly healthy adolescent till he developed a cough out of the blue. Zorn said they were clueless as parents since there was zero indication that he had been using a vape. Wynn revealed that his pals had given him vapes.
The CAT scan revealed fluid in Wynn's lungs and around his heart in three different locations. Since it was definitely damaging his heart, he was scheduled to visit the cardiologist. But on June 16, Zorn said he suddenly collapsed and was taken to the hospital, where he was eventually placed on a ventilator.
"The doctor at the hospital told us that his kidneys had not responded to anything. His kidneys were in total kidney failure. He was too weak for dialysis that if we try dialysis ... We had to make the decision to take our 15-year-old son off the ventilator," Zorn stated, WECT News reported in June.
Wynn's death devastated his school's football squad, as well as his family, friends, and acquaintances. At his burial, Zorn pleaded for the others to stop vaping.
Worrying Findings on Vaping
E-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury (EVALI) affected over 2,800 people in 50 states and two US territories as of February 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), just before the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the country.
Vapes have nicotine in them, and CDC notes that nicotine is highly addictive and may negatively impact brain development beginning in early adulthood.
The CDC lists the following as possible EVALI symptoms:
- Respiratory symptoms, including cough, shortness of breath, or chest pain
- Gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, or diarrhea
- Nonspecific constitutional symptoms, like fever, chills, or weight loss
A disturbing CDC report from 2022 found that over 2.5 million American teenagers are regular vapers. About 85% of the young people polled reported using flavored e-cigarettes. In an attempt to reduce teenage vaping, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) outlawed all flavors except tobacco and menthol. Yet, certain flavored vape devices are still available.
