An Illinois woman whose lungs were severely injured after she started vaping is suing JUUL, alleging the vape maker “intentionally downplayed, misrepresented, concealed and failed to warn of the risks of nicotine exposure and addiction that the products posed.”
The Herald-News reports that Piper Johnson of New Lenox, Illinois, filed the lawsuit in Will County, Illinois court. She alleges that JUUL’s youth-oriented marketing lured her to start vaping when she was just 16. Like most teens who started “JUULing,” Ms. Johnson says she was unaware the products contained nicotine.
That’s because in its earlier days, JUUL failed to mention its flash-drive-resembling devices were essentially electronic cigarettes, and that their fruity-flavored pods were loaded with nicotine.
Severe diffuse pneumonia, lung damage
According to the lawsuit, Ms. Johnson started to experience labored and painful breathing. She was driving with her mother to the University of Northern Colorado where she was to begin her freshman year when her breathing became excessively difficult and painful.
Instead of going to the university, Ms. Johnson’s mother took her straight to the hospital in Greeley where doctors diagnosed her with “acute hypoxic respiratory failure” and put her in critical care. A CT scan of her lungs showed that she suffered from diffuse pneumonia, meaning that the infection was spread all over her lungs instead of affecting just one part.
First EVALI case in Colorado
At that time, a mysterious vaping-associated lung disease had fallen under the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) radar. The CDC had confirmed about 215 cases of the severe pulmonary disease in 25 states. As doctors and public health researchers came to understand more about the illness, the CDC named it EVALI, short for “e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury.”
Ms. Johnson’s doctors found her symptoms fit the profile of EVALI, which was still relatively nascent at that time. She became the first confirmed case of EVALI in Colorado.
We're here to help!
At Clark & DiStefano we are attentive, always focusing on the needs of our clients. We develop strategies that are tailored to each individual case, and we treat our clients as strategic partners in achieving a common goal. We endeavor to think outside of the box and formulate cost-effective strategies. Lastly, we believe in prompt communications with clients so they have predictability for reserve setting and sufficient time for studied pre-trial evaluations and recommendations.