The New York Times: Her Lungs Mysteriously Shut Down. How Could This Have Happened?

By Lisa Sanders, MD 

The 21-year-old woman gasped as she read the headline: “The 16-Year-Old Girl Who Walks and Eats Tacos While on Life Support.” She scanned the article about a girl who had a mysterious illness that destroyed her lungs and who now needed a machine to breathe for her. “I need to do something,” she told herself once she finished the article. She believed she knew what was killing this young girl, because the story could have been her own, six years earlier.

And now there was this young woman in the news. Her name was Zei Uwadia. The article named Dr. Jenna Miller as the pediatric I.C.U. specialist at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., who was taking care of Uwadia. The young woman found an email address for the doctor and immediately sent her a note. “I began taking Bactrim for acne about 3-4 weeks prior to [my] acute lung failure,” she wrote. “This happened to at least 3 children between 12-20 years [old]. ... The similarities between our cases are uncanny.” She asked if Uwadia had been taking TMP-SMX too.

Miller was astonished. Indeed, the girl was taking TMP-SMX when she got sick. Could there be a link? 

Read the full article via The New York Times.

Learn more about services offered through the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Children's Mercy Kansas City.