ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — The state health department announced Thursday Missouri's first vaping-related death.
The death of a Missouri man in his mid-40s happened this week at Mercy Hospital St. Louis. It represents the eighth death in the nation associated with vaping.
The statement from Mercy and the Department of Health and Senior Services says the man started vaping to deal with chronic pain but doesn't specify what he was using — whether it was nicotine, THC from a legal dispensary somewhere or THC from a black market street vendor.
The statement said the man had normal lung function prior to May 2019. He then developed mild respiratory symptoms that worsened, leading to hospitalization on Aug. 22 before being transferred to Mercy St. Louis on Sept. 4.
“This is an unfortunate case of a young man with no prior lung illness who started vaping because of chronic pain issues,” Dr. Michael Plisco said in a statement. He is the Mercy critical care pulmonologist and medical director of Mercy’s extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program. “He started out with shortness of breath and it rapidly progressed and deteriorated, developing into what is called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Once the lungs are injured by vaping, we don’t know how quickly it worsens and if it depends on other risk factors.”