Children's Minnesota has confirmed four cases of severe lung injury linked to teenagers vaping, these are the first confirmed cases in the state of Minnesota. Public Health officials in Wisconsin issued alerts in July of this year after identifying cases of severe lung disease they believed to be tied to vaping. According to KARE11 Wisconsin's Department of Health Services has confirmed a total of 12 such cases and health officials in Illinois have confirmed three more.

Dr. Anne Griffiths, Pediatric Pulmonologist for Children's Minnesota said 'The injuries have been severe and I'm hoping that this will help to get the word out." The patients she has treated range from 16-18 y.o. some had said they had been vaping for a few months while others claimed to vaping for years.

Dr. Griffiths stated "They're having symptoms that look like typical infectious symptoms, cough, fever, shortness of breath, that sort of thing. The patients have stopped vaping, gone home with typical treatment for pneumonia or bronchitis and continued to get worse. Then presented back to the hospital to figure out why they are becoming sicker."

Dr. Griffiths has made clear that they are worried that some of this lung damage could be long term. but more testing and research needs to be done. The testing on these patients has been a long tedious process to help rule out infections, and other causes. For more information on these findings click here.

More From MIX 108