Teen Dies Of Stroke Doctors Mistook For Nicotine Overdose

We talk a lot about the negative associations people have with vaping. Combine the ignorance and lack of information with improperly diagnosing patients and you have a pretty serious case of malpractice on your hands. And when that patient is a suffering teenager who you choose to punish instead of help, this case of malpractice turns into a tragedy that could have been easily prevented.

Kyle Losse was a high school baseball player who was rushed to the hospital after collapsing in his bathroom. He was found unresponsive on the floor, a vaping device nearby. When he arrived at the hospital in a debilitated state, the doctors were informed of the vape at the scene of the incident, and threw away all other possibilities and blamed his condition on a nicotine overdose.

They performed no brain scans and didn’t even test his blood for nicotine levels. They only tested the vape juice in his device and found it did include nicotine. They however didn’t check his system to see if he had consumed enough of it to be having such a dramatic reaction.

“I feel like they chalked it up to a stupid kid using an e-vape and didn’t fully look at everything that happened,” His stepmother Niki told CTV News, “They made it seem like those were normal reactions to an e-vape… Especially when they released us… They assumed it was nicotine and a nicotine overdose, but they never tested for that. I just feel like running that test to ensure that was the cause, would have come back negative and they could have started testing for something else.”

No doubt, had doctors done this there is a high chance Kyle would still be alive today. Instead, they sent Kyle home at 6AM the following morning, unaware that he was still having a non-vaping related stroke.

Delta hospital did say they preformed a cognizance test on Kyle before discharging him. However, his stepmother had to help him dress himself and walk once they were home. She also said that Kyle was not speaking in complete or decipherable sentences. That afternoon he was rushed to a different hospital and placed on life support. He was removed from life support the next day and died.

When Kyle’s autopsy was completed they found no nicotine in his system at all. His mother believes the reason why he was near the vape at all, was unrelated to his use of it, he was most likely just “hiding it” from them. The most likely cause of his death (besides malpractice at Delta hospital) was a disease called fibromuscular dysplasia. FMD presents itself later in life typically, although it is likely that the form of FMD Kyle suffered from was a form that represents only 10% of FDM patients, but presents itself suddenly in minors.

The doctors at Delta hospital completely dismissed all the warning signs of this disease, failed to test any further for another underlying cause, all because the boy was found near a vape device that contained nicotine.

The device was purchased for Kyle by his friend's father who's name and information are now with local police who are going forward determining how to handle the situation. Niki Losse does advise parents to always be aware of underage vaping, to warn your kids about the addictive qualities of nicotine, and believes regulations need to be improved to avoid underage sales of vaping devices.

Even if Kyle had been vaping at the time of his initial fall, they should have gone forward with other testing, seeing as a nicotine overdose with that much damage could only come from literally ingesting large quantities of straight vape juice. His delirium, low blood pressure, and slowed heart rate were not signs typically associated with a nicotine overdose.

And doctors should have known that, but were blinded by the big bad vape found near their patient. They were so convinced vaping could cause that much harm that they didn’t test further for nicotine or any other issues. They let the fear of vaping speak for them.

This story is a sad and tragic one, not meant to say that vaping is completely risk free. It’s meant to highlight the worse issue that even some of the highest medical professionals, who hold lives in their hands daily,  have fallen to the ignorance and fear surrounding e-cigarettes being pushed by legislators and anti vaping evangelists. And it is that misinformation about E-cigarettes that took the life of Kyle Losse.