Sally Hawkins, Knez Walker, Ashley Riegle and Anthony Rivas report on how vaping almost killed Simah Herman and the issues surrounding the increased use of e-cigarettes. Herman, 18, was hospitalized this August after losing her ability to breathe. Less than 48 hours after Herman’s first chest X-ray, the later ones showed her lungs were inflamed and filled with fluid. Pulmonologist Dr. Kathryn Melamed, who was looking after Herman said, “My best guess since we’re still learning about what is really going on in the lungs is [it’s a] profound inflammatory reaction to the vape products or some…component of the vape products,” when talking about Herman’s chest X-rays. Herman is only one case of a growing number of vaping-related illnesses. There are six confirmed deaths and 450 possible cases of lung illness tied to vaping.
With the hot topic of vaping going around, this is super relevant article. It does the first part of the story in the article well. Reading about Simah Herman going through a near-death experience made me feel sick to my stomach. It provided a human-interest hook was more engaging than just reading all the points about how vaping is bad. Yet, the article loses interest the longer the story goes on. Herman’s case is in a very inverted pyramid order, but because her details are spread so far through the story, it makes it seem long. There are addition links about different articles related to vaping that break up the story and make it hard to focus on. The links aren’t placed in places to get out of the story, just under relevant information.
Yes, a hot topic. Currency. Timeliness.
The lead is what my professors called a Wall Sttreet Journal lead. It attempts to put a face on a larger issue. It attempts to make the story “personal.” Readers re suppoed to become more emotionally involved in the story if it has a human angle.
The video story is 8 minutes, which is long by TV standards. It might hold your interest better with images than the print version.