Vaping for just months almost KILLED me: British schoolboy, 16, who suffered an allergic reaction to his e-cigarette fluid was placed on life support as his organs failed
- Ewan Fisher, now 19, rushed to A&E after vomiting a neon green liquid in 2017
- Put on life support when lungs, heart failed due to hypersensitivity pneumonitis
- Medics believe was triggered by reaction to the chemicals found in e-cigarettes
This heartbreaking picture shows a schoolboy fighting for his life in hospital after he almost he almost died from vaping when his organs failed.
Ewan Fisher, now 19, was rushed to A&E in May 2017 after vomiting a neon green liquid and gasping for breath just four months after taking up e-cigarettes.
He had to be hooked up to life support in intensive care when his vital organs failed and an artificial lung was needed to pump oxygen through his body.
The teenager, from Nottingham, is believed to have suffered an exaggerated immune response to chemicals found in e-cigarette fluid.
His case adds to rising alarm over the health risks of e-cigarettes after the first British death linked to them was reported last month.
Ewan Fisher, 19, had to be hooked up to life support and almost died from serious respiratory failure triggered by vaping
The teen, from Nottingham, vital organs failed and an artificial lung was needed to pump oxygen through his body
He was rushed to A&E after vomiting a neon green liquid and gasping for breath just four months after taking up vaping
He was diagnosed with hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP), which sees the air sacs and airways in the lungs become severely inflamed.
The condition is triggered by an allergic reaction to inhaled dust, fungus, moulds or chemicals.
It has been linked to the vaping epidemic in the US, which has seen 40 people die and more than 2,000 hospitalised with mysterious lung diseases associated with the devices.
The tale was revealed by Nottingham University Hospitals Trust doctors in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Case Reports.
The teenager revealed he stopped smoking a half pack of cigarettes a day at 16 because he wanted to focus on his boxing training.
He switched to puffing on two sweet-flavoured e-liquids around 14 times a day. But by May 2017, he gave them up too after developing a nasty cough.
Just days later he vomited a bright green liquid and was rushed to hospital by his panicked mother.
The life support saved him but he was in hospital for a month and did not fully recover for more than a year.
He said: ‘I switched to vaping because I thought it would be healthier and I was really into my boxing at the time so wanted to feel fit.
WHAT IS HYPERSENSITIVITY PNEUMONITIS?
Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) happens if your lungs develop an immune response – hypersensitivity – to something you breathe in which results in inflammation of the lung tissue – pneumonitis.
It sees the air sacs and airways in the lungs become severely inflamed.
The condition is triggered by an allergic reaction to inhaled dust, fungus, moulds or chemicals.
It’s exact prevalence is unknown, but experts estimate it plagues 1 per cent of farmers.
This is why it has earned the nickname farmer’s lung.
This is caused by breathing in mould that grows on hay, straw and grain.
It has also been dubbed is bird fancier’s lung, caused by breathing in particles from feathers or bird droppings.
Many other substances can cause similar disease patterns. In many cases it can be very difficult to find the exact cause.
The symptoms include cough, shortness of breath and sometimes fever and joint pains.
You may need to take anti-inflammatory medication called steroids for a few weeks or months.
If you need steroids to control the condition for longer, your doctor may recommend more drugs to reduce the risk of side effects associated with steroids.
‘In the run-up to going to hospital, I had a choking cough and I was struggling to breathe. My mum was really worried and took me to Queen’s Medical Centre.
‘I was really struggling to breathe and they rushed me into a side ward and it went downhill from there.
‘I ended up in intensive care and needed two forms of life support. I almost died.’
The teenager, who is studying business at college, has warned others against switching from cigarettes to vaping, despite health bosses encouraging smokers to do so.
He added: ‘To people that already smoke, I’d say go to the doctor’s for help, don’t just switch to vaping.
‘And to all the teenagers that vape and think it’s something good, it’s really not.
‘I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone, it ruins you and your family, and it affects your mental health.
‘I would say my health is back to 80 per cent but I still suffer from anxiety about it all.
‘I missed my GCSEs, my mum had to take all the time off work, she struggled financially and she also had my younger sister to look after.’
Mr Fisher was rushed to hospital by his mother Melanie on May 15, 2017 – the night before a GCSE exam.
She had heard him wheezing and struggling to catch his breath in his room.
He was transferred to intensive care where he was given intravenous antibiotics and steroids to reduce the inflammation in his lungs.
The boy was then given extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (Ecmo) – an exterior artificial lung which pumps oxygen into the blood and around the body.
But 10 days later, while in hospital, his condition plummeted to critical and he suffered from severe muscle weakness which caused his organs to fail. A lung scan and biopsy confirmed the schoolboy had hypersensitivity pneumonitis.
His case comes amid a vaping epidemic in the US which has killed 40 people in 24 states (red)
After recovering against the odds, two months on was given a skin-prick test with two chemicals used in e-cigarettes. Within just eight hours, he started wheezing and struggling to breathe.
A subsequent blood test revealed his body produced extra antibodies whenever the e-liquids were inhaled – pointing to an overactive immune response.
The authors, led by Dr Jayesh Bhatt, a paediatric respiratory consultant at NUHT who treated the youngster, write in the report: ‘There are two important lessons here.
‘The first is always to consider a reaction to e-cigarettes in someone presenting with an atypical respiratory illness.
‘The second is that we consider e-cigarettes as ‘much safer than tobacco’ at our peril.’
Public Health England claims e-cigarettes are ’95 per cent safer than traditional tobacco’ and encourages smokers to make the switch.
It says vape contains fewer harmful chemicals than standard cigarettes, which burn tobacco and produce tar.
E-cigarettes allow users to inhale nicotine in vapour rather than breathing in smoke.
Counterfeit or bootleg e-cigarettes that officials believe have been tinkered with to contain THC have become the prime suspects behind the US deaths.
Vaping is just as bad for your heart as smoking cigarettes as researchers warn e-cigarettes are NOT safer than tobacco
By Connor Boyd Health Reporter for MailOnline
Vaping could put you at the same risk of getting heart disease as smoking cigarettes, research suggests.
Public Health England claims e-cigarettes are ’95 per cent safer than traditional tobacco’ and encourages smokers to make the switch.
But researchers have found the devices may trigger changes in cholesterol linked to killer heart disease, similar to cigarettes.
Vaping also stifled the heart’s ability to pump blood around the body just as much, if not more, than traditional forms of tobacco.
Research has shown smoking cigarettes increases heart rate, tightens major arteries and can cause an irregular heart rhythm – all of which make your heart work harder.
The killer habit also raises blood pressure, which increases the risk of a stroke and a heart attack.
Scientists are unsure why e-cigarettes cause similar changes in heart health, even though they contain fewer harmful chemicals than standard cigarettes.
British health bosses say they are ‘as certain as ever’ that vaping is less harmful than smoking despite 34 Americans dying to mystery lung diseases linked to the devices
E-cigarettes allow users to inhale nicotine in vapour form, rather than breathing in smoke from cigarettes which burn tobacco and produce tar.
But scientists are now advising users wean off e-cigarettes because of the ‘lack of information on long-term safety’ and a ‘growing body of data on their negative effects’.
Researchers from Boston University analysed 476 participants aged between 21 and 45 with no previous heart issues.
British health experts are as ‘certain as EVER’ that vaping is less harmful than smoking cigarettes
The latest studies come just a week after British health bosses said they are ‘as certain as ever’ that vaping is less harmful than smoking.
Public Health England’s Professor John Newton said he was adamant that e-cigarettes were ‘far less harmful than smoking’.
PHE claims vaping is 95 per cent better than smoking and still encourages traditional smokers to make the switch.
It says vape contains fewer harmful chemicals than standard cigarettes, which burn tobacco and produce tar. E-cigarettes allow users to inhale nicotine in vapour rather than breathing in smoke.
Counterfeit or bootleg e-cigarettes that officials believe have been tinkered with to contain THC have become the prime suspects behind the US deaths.
But Professor Newton, director of health improvement at PHE, reiterated it had not changed its advice on nicotine containing e-cigarettes.
‘Smokers should consider switching completely and vapers should stop smoking,’ he said.
‘We are as certain as ever that e-cigarettes are far less harmful than smoking, which kills almost 220 people in England every day.
‘Our concern is that the responses we have seen to the problem in the US and in other countries may increase the already widespread misunderstanding about the relative safety of nicotine e-cigarettes, deterring smokers from switching and risk driving vapers who have switched back to smoking.’
Of them, 94 were non-smokers, 45 e-cigarette users, 52 people who used both e-cigarettes and traditional tobacco and 285 cigarette smokers.
The team found that bad cholesterol, known as LDL, was higher in sole e-cigarette users compared to non-smokers.
When you have more LDL than your body needs, it can cause plaque to build up in your arteries. This thick, hard plaque can clog your arteries like a blocked pipe.
Reduced blood flow can lead to a stroke or heart attack. If a clot completely blocks an artery feeding your heart, you can have a heart attack.
Lead author Sana Majid said: ‘Although primary care providers and patients may think that the use of e-cigarettes by cigarette smokers makes heart health sense, our study shows e-cigarette use is also related to differences in cholesterol levels.
‘The best option is to use FDA-approved methods to aid in smoking cessation, along with behavioural counselling.’
However, the team’s research did not look at whether vape users had previously smoked cigarettes.
The high cholesterol levels therefore may have been caused by damage done by previous traditional tobacco use.
A separate study, by the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, found vaping was worse for heart blood flow than cigarettes.
Researchers analysed 19 young adult smokers – aged between 24 and 32 – immediately before and after vaping or smoking a cigarette.
They examined the heart’s function using an ultrasound while participants were at rest and after performing a handgrip exercise to simulate physiologic stress.
In smokers who use traditional cigarettes, blood flow increased modestly after inhalation and then decreased with subsequent stress.
However, in smokers who used e-cigarettes, blood flow decreased after both inhalation at rest and after handgrip stress.
Lead author Florian Rader, medical director of the Human Physiology Laboratory at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said: ‘These results indicate that e-cig use is associated with persistent coronary vascular dysfunction at rest, even in the absence of physiologic stress.’
Co-author Susan Cheng, director of public health research, also at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, added: ‘We were surprised by our observation of the heart’s blood flow being reduced at rest, even in the absence of stress, following inhalation from the e-cigarette.
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