评论
打印
For the next two months Walker tried convincing himself that he could quit anytime. "I thought, 'If I want to give it up, I'll just give it up,' " he says.
在接下来的两个月里，沃克试图说服自己，他随时都可以戒掉。“我想，‘如果我想戒烟，我就戒烟，’”他说。
"But by then I was hooked on it just like everyone else." In early March, Walker went to a hospital emergency room near campus complaining of chest pain, fever and vomiting. Doctors told himhe had the flu and prescribed antibiotics and steroids.
“但那时候，我和其他人一样，对它着了迷。”三月初，沃克去了学校附近的一家医院急诊室，说胸痛、发烧和呕吐。医生告诉他他得了流感，并给他开了抗生素和类固醇。
Eleven days later "my chest hurt so bad I couldn't even see straight," says Walker, who somehow managed to drive himself the 200 miles from his Boca Raton campus to his parents' home in Orlando.
十一天后，沃克说：“我的胸口痛得厉害，我甚至都看不清楚了。”他自己开了200英里的车，从他在博卡拉顿的校园来到奥兰多的父母家。
"I'd never seen anyone so sick in all my life," says his father, Dave, 56, who rushed his son to a nearby urgent-care clinic.
“我这辈子从来没见过病得这么厉害的人，”他的父亲，56岁的戴夫(Dave)说。他立即将儿子送往附近一家急救诊所。
Doctors immediately sent them to a hospital, where X-rays revealed that Walker had what looked like pneumonia in his left lung.
医生立即将他们送往医院，x光片显示沃克的左肺里有疑似肺炎的东西。
"No one asked me if I vaped," says Walker, who was admitted to the ICU. "They just asked me if I smoked, and I told them I didn't."
“没人问我是不是吸了电子烟，”住进ICU的沃克说。“他们只是问我是否吸烟，我告诉他们我不吸烟。”
Says his dad: "I just kept asking myself, 'How does a healthy kid get this sick?' "
他的爸爸说：“我一直在问自己，‘一个健康的孩子怎么会得这种病？”
Within days Walker was put on a respirator and later airlifted to another hospital, where doctors heavily sedated him—then hooked him up to an ECMO machine, which pumps and oxygenates blood outside the body, allowing his lungs and heart to rest.
几天后，沃克戴上了呼吸机，随后被空运到另一家医院，医生给他注射了大量镇静剂，然后把他连接到ECMO机器上，这台机器可以将血液泵出体外，为血液提供氧气，让他的肺和心脏得到休息。
"He was dying," says his mom, Candy, 49, who works as a critical-care nurse.
“他快要死了，”他49岁的母亲坎迪(Candy)说，她是一名主治护士。
It took seven days for doctors to confirm that Walker's infection was caused by the adenovirus—a common strain that's prevalent in college dorms and usually leads to mild illnesses such as coughs, colds and diarrhea.
医生花了七天时间才确认沃克的感染是由腺病毒引起的。腺病毒是一种常见病，在大学宿舍里很常见，通常会导致轻微的疾病，比如咳嗽、感冒和腹泻。
But they were at a loss to explain how the virus had nearly killed an otherwise strong and healthy college student. The answer became clear in mid-April after Dave went to clean out Walker's dorm room—and was horrified by what he found.
但他们不知道该病毒是如何差点杀死一名强壮健康的大学生的。四月中旬，当戴夫去打扫沃克的宿舍时，答案变得清晰起来——他被自己的发现吓坏了。
"I opened up his desk drawer, and it was filled with Juul pods," says Dave, an insurance broker. Doctors soon put two and two together.
“我打开他书桌抽屉，里面全是Juul电子烟，”保险经纪人戴夫说。医生们很快就弄清了真相。
"Most likely," says Dr. Hunley, "it was the vaping that contributed to his respiratory collapse, which contributed to a proliferation of the adenovirus."
“最有可能的，”亨利博士说，“是电子烟导致了他呼吸衰竭，加速了腺病毒的扩散。”
By the time Walker finally left the hospital in July he'd lost 80 pounds, and his left lung and both his kidneys had been destroyed.
沃克最终在7月出院，当时他已经减掉了80磅，左肺和两个肾脏都被破坏了。
In August two FDA investigators showed up at the family's home asking where Walker had purchased his pods. "I said, 'I'm glad to see you here,' " says a still furious Candy. " 'But where the hell were you four years ago when you approved these stupid things?!' "
8月，两名FDA调查人员出现在沃克的家中，询问他的电子烟是从哪里买的。“我说，‘我很高兴在这里见到你，’”说到这些坎迪依旧愤怒。“‘但是四年前你批准这些愚蠢的事情的时候，你到底在哪里？！”
For now the McKnights, who are suing Juul for their son's injuries, are focused on getting Walker strong enough to endure having his left lung removed and the kidney transplants doctors say he now needs to survive.
目前，麦克奈茨夫妇正在起诉Juul造成他们儿子的伤病，他们的重点是让沃克变得足够强壮，能够承受切除左肺和肾脏移植手术的痛苦。医生说，沃克现在需要进行肾脏移植手术才能活下来。
These days his life revolves around dialysis sessions three times a week, physical therapy twice a week, regular doctors' appointments and naps twice daily.
这些天来，他一周三次透析治疗，一周两次物理治疗，定期看医生，每天小睡两次。
"This is something I used to think only happened in the movies," admits Walker, who only recently began driving himself to medical appointments and occasionally seeing friends, who he admits are shaken by his ordeal.
沃克承认：“我过去认为这种事情只会发生在电影里。”他最近才开始自己开车去看医生，偶尔也会去看望朋友，他承认他的经历让他们很震惊。
Meanwhile, Candy says she fights the urge to share her family's nightmare every time she sees someone vaping: "I just want to grab my phone and show thema picture of Walker in the hospital and say, 'Do you understand that you could end up like this one day?' "
与此同时，坎迪说，每当她看到有人吸电子烟时，她都抑制住分享家人噩梦的冲动。“我只是想拿起我的手机，给他们看沃克在医院的照片，然后说，‘你知道有一天你会变成这样吗?’”
