SAN RAFAEL (KRON) – A 45-year-old woman has died from complications related to the use of e-cigarettes at a Marin County hospital, health officials say.
The Marin County Health Officer says the death occurred on Friday, the day after she showed up in the emergency room.
This is the first vaping related death in the Bay Area and the fourth in California this year.
The Marin County Coroner identified the victim as 45-year-old Amanda Arconti from Vacaville.
Arconti split her residence and lived part-time in Marin County.
The county health officer says Arconti was previously healthy just days before she showed up at the hospital on Thursday.
“A few days earlier had developed some respiratory symptoms, shortness of breath, some chest pain, a cough, um which really progressed very rapidly. She went to the emergency department, within a few hours was put on a breathing machine, sent into the ICU, developed acute respiratory distress syndrome and passed really within a matter of hours,” Dr. Matt Willis said.
There have been more than 2,000 vaping related illnesses reported nationwide and at least 40 people have died.
While a small fraction of these cases has been linked with Vitamin E Acetate, in combination with THC by the CDC, so far officials do not know if Arconti used cannabis-related products or any vaping liquids containing Vitamin E.
“We know she was using at least regular nicotine-containing products. And in conversation with the family, they did site that she was trying to cut down,” Dr. Willis said.
Arconti who had only started vaping six months ago was in possession of both flavored and unflavored vaping products.
Now, while this death does meet the benchmarks set by the CDC, to be considered vaping related, the Marin County Coroner still has not officially determined her cause of death.
That determination won’t likely be made for several weeks pending lab results but still, the health department says their advice to the public is to refrain from vaping entirely.
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