Michigan – A 17-year-old Michigan boy facing “imminent death” from vaping injuries has undergone a double lung transplant, the first in a patient suffering from the effects of e-cigarettes, a Detroit hospital said on Tuesday.
The announcement by Henry Ford Hospital came a day after President Donald Trump said he would meet with industry representatives as his administration weighs new regulations amid a nationwide outbreak of vaping-related illness and deaths.
“This teenager faced imminent death had he not received a lung transplant,” Dr Hassan Nemeh, surgical director of thoracic organ transplant at Henry Ford Hospital, said in a statement announcing the mid-October procedure, which he carried out with two other surgeons, assisted by a team of experts.
Family members of the boy, who was not identified by name, said in the statement that they had asked doctors to make public the “horrific life-threatening effects” of vaping.
“Within a very short period of time, our lives have been forever changed. (The boy) has gone from the typical life of a perfectly healthy 16-year old athlete … to waking up intubated and with two new lungs, facing a long and painful recovery process as he struggles to regain his strength and mobility, which has been severely impacted,” family members said.