By Alex LaTrenta, Greenwich Academy class of 2020
Fourth in a series of articles about the prevention, recognition, and treatment of public health threats in Greenwich. This August a young adult from Fairfield County went to the Greenwich Hospital Emergency Room (ER) with a dry cough, chills, and a chest x-ray which looked like early pneumonia. After several days of antibiotics, the patient returned to the ER with a worsening chest x-ray and received stronger antibiotics. Within days the patient rushed to the ER again, required supplemental oxygen, and in 24 hours was hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit on a mechanical ventilator. Dr. Sandra Wainwright, Pulmonary and Critical Care Specialist at Greenwich Hospital, recognized the unique features of this case given that “when young people present with pneumonia they usually get better quickly.”
After hearing about the cases of vaping related lung injury in the Midwest, Wainwright suspected that this patient suffered from the same disorder right in our community. Continue Reading →