Ricky D'Ambrosio survives a deadly illness

Ricky D'Ambrosio felt the seizure before it came. He was 17. He slipped out of bed, just before midnight, and walked to his mother's room. The Loomis youth collapsed on the floor and his mother, Christy D'Ambrosio, woke and saw her son's lips turn blue and his face go pale. He couldn't breathe. She screamed, then called 9-1-1. That was in 2014. Christy D'Ambrosio still has nightmares about her son seizing on the floor. Ricky D'Ambrosio has had grand mal seizures from diabetes since he was 7. That's why she was OK with Ricky D'Ambrosio's marijuana vape when he began using it this year. He was 21 now and hadn't had a seizure in months. The THC seemed like it was helping his epilepsy. He used only Juul products and never used off brands or black market products. Then, on Aug. 27, the two went out for Mexican food. When they arrived home, Ricky D'Ambrosio started vomiting. Over the next couple of days, the nausea persisted and a fever ensued. Christy D'Ambrosio considered taking her son to the ER. Because Ricky has type 1 diabetes, if he can't keep food down, he struggles to control his blood sugar levels. Drop too low and he would have a seizure. Christy D'Ambrosio worried about her son. Ricky, who has short blond hair and blue eyes, and has "a wonderful, good, loving heart." At a young age, he was taught to thank those in uniform and always did. His mother remembers him asking to buy a firefighter a gift card in a grocery store, then running to give it to him. He attended Lincoln High School freshman year, then Whitney High School sophomore and junior year, and graduated from Victory High School in 2017. Ricky D'Ambrosio started working with his grandfather at Lincoln Gold & Coin in November 2018. Now, though, his condition deteriorated. On Aug. 30, she took him to a doctor, who told her that the nausea and fever were merely a bad flu. But Christy D'Ambrosio was worried that the symptoms might be related to her son's epilepsy or diabetes. The next morning, he looked gaunt. Ghostly. Ricky D'Ambrosio hadn't slept and had lost weight. Christy D'Ambrosio rushed Ricky to the ER. She left the car running in front of the hospital, the door still open. His last memory is seeing the hospital from the car. The doctors in the ER were baffled. The mother began to worry in earnest. &emsp;&emsp;****** As of Dec. 4, 2,291 reported cases of vaping-related acute lung injury have been recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness has killed 48 nationally and four in California. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory recently found vitamin E acetate to be in lung samples of patients suffering from the vaping-related illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that other chemicals might also be of concern. Unknown to doctors and Christy D'Ambrosio, small particulates of chemicals (potentially vitamin E acetate) from Ricky D'Ambrosio's marijuana vape were inhaled deep into his lungs. That caused inflammation and injury to the interstitium, where oxygen is introduced to the bloodstream and CO2 is released. Human lungs filter chemicals, viruses and bacteria. But in Ricky D'Ambrosio's case, the chemicals overwhelmed this defense mechanism. On Sept. 1, doctors kept Ricky D'Ambrosio at the hospital while his mother headed home to sleep. At 3 a.m. the next day, a doctor called her and said: "He can't breathe. We have to intubate him. We are rushing him to the ICU." The cause of Ricky's lung failure was unknown to doctors at the time. Mark Courtney, an American Lung Association lung therapist, provides a retrospective analysis. The lung's lining, interstitium, is made up of alveoli or 300,000,000 small sacks of air in the lungs that allow for the exchange of oxygen and CO2. In Ricky D'Ambrosio's lungs, however, toxic chemicals were inflaming the alveoli, making them fill with liquid or collapse. Inhaled oxygen had no place to go. Without enough oxygen, his brain and heart wouldn't be able to function. Christy D'Ambrosio arrived at the hospital just before intubation. Her son hunched over; his breathing shallow and labored. Christy D'Ambrosio told him she loved him. "You are going to go to sleep," she said. "Your body is going to heal, and then you are going to come back to me." All Ricky D'Ambrosio could do was nod his head, "yes." Then doctors intubated him, putting a tube down Ricky D'Ambrosio's throat to control his breathing. Semi-conscious on sedatives, he tried to rip the tube out. They strapped his arms to the bed. After initiating a medically-induced coma, doctors temporarily paralyzed Ricky D'Ambrosio to stop him from pulling the tube out of his throat and decrease his body's oxygen expenditure. Waiting in the other room, Christy D'Ambrosio got the news from the doctors. It was time for her to call family and friends. If her son didn't start recovering, his organs could fail. She went into a trance. "This is not real," she told herself. "This is not happening." Christy D'Ambrosio called his sister, Caitlynne D'Ambrosio, at college. Caitlynne wants to be a trauma surgeon. She can shut off her feelings and be very matter-of-fact, Christy D'Ambrosio said. But when her daughter first walked into the hospital room and saw her brother with tubes protruding from his body, she cried. Caitlynne D'Ambrosio mentioned to doctors that morning her brother vaped. It was noted. But the doctors were still ruling out other diagnoses. They were trying three new antibiotics that day. But by nighttime, he was getting worse. Christy D'Ambrosio was spending nights next to Ricky. She was sleep-deprived. She held his limp hand, wondering if she would be on their family vacation in December or at a funeral. Ricky D'Ambrosio wanted to be cremated and she knew where he wanted his ashes spread. His sister started researching. A friend sent an article about another mother in another state, whose child was enduring something similar. Their diagnosis: vaping. Vapes heat liquids, typically containing THC or nicotine, into an aerosol that users, like Ricky D'Ambrosio, then inhale. Different chemicals are used to administer THC or nicotine to the lungs. Doctors on the case Caitlynne D'Ambrosio heard about had administered steroids. The next morning, Caitlynne and Christy D'Ambrosio inquired about doing the same with Ricky D'Ambrosio. He began a course of treatment that day. By the next night, his body responded — the alveoli in his lungs were healing. Doctors told Christy D'Ambrosio that her son would live. Christy D'Ambrosio walked out of the ICU. Her son's friends and family waited in the hallway. The room broke down. As Christy D'Ambrosio said recently, "It is a pretty amazing feeling to know that you are not going to lose your child that day." Three days later, the tube was gone and Ricky D'Ambrosio was awake. He was in shock, he said. "Do you know where you are, Ricky?" Christy D'Ambrosio asked. He couldn't talk much; his throat was too sore. One of his best friends made a joke. He laughed, even though it hurt his lungs. The withdrawal from the painkillers was brutal. Ricky D'Ambrosio had full body shakes, cold and hot sweats, and his arms would jolt up above his head and contort. With his epilepsy and diabetes, the Loomis resident has had some close calls. But it took him a couple of days to realize, "I really cut it close this time." His grandparents, Jim and Jeannette D'Ambrosio, are eternally grateful for Ricky D'Ambrosio's recovery but understand that he is really not out of the woods. Any long-term effects are, as yet, not known. "We pray that this nightmare is over. We have experienced so many health-related issues with Ricky over his relatively short life," his grandfather said. "He lived with us for several years while we helped get his diabetes under control. He has experienced many more problems in his 21 years than most people will experience in a lifetime. Words alone can't describe how blessed we are to have our prayers answered for his recovery." ****** As vaping-related lung injuries continue to crop up across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is partnering with the Food and Drug Administration and state agencies to discover the cause. They have activated an Emergency Operations Center and sent officers from the Epidemic Intelligence Service to support states. But no specific chemical has yet been identified as a cause. On Sept. 10, the doctors let Ricky D'Ambrosio go home. He had to learn how to walk again, coming out of paralysis, and his feet are hypersensitive, aching and cramping at the end of the day. He's now back at work, at Lincoln Gold & Coin, back to doing chores around the house and taking care of his dog, Lucy. "Just being a normal 21-year-old", Christy D'Ambrosio said. But the terror of the week still lingers. During the ordeal, Christy D'Ambrosio wrote a Facebook post that ended up going viral. She included a photo of her son with tubes protruding from his body and made a plea to other parents and teens about vaping, writing, "The only thing that is safe to put into your lungs is air, not smoke, not oils, its air." Ricky D'Ambrosio agrees. He was always told that vaping was a safer option than smoking. "Now I completely disagree with that," he said, "People are using different chemicals in vape juice and they don't know the effects yet." Christy D'Ambrosio still points others to the post, hoping they hear their message. "Is it worth this?" she wrote. "Let Ricky be an example so you or your loved ones DO NOT NEED TO GO THROUGH THIS. As a momma sitting by her son's hospital bed, wondering if we still get to go on our family trip together or if I'll be planning his funeral…" Today, Ricky D'Ambrosio will tell you, "It's not worth the risk." Jesse Bedayn is a University of California at Berkeley student working on a master's degree in journalism.