Made in MKE: Louella Amos

Sounding the alarm on the dangers of teen vaping, and putting Milwaukee on the map in the process.

When three teenagers were admitted to Children’s Wisconsin in July 2019 with severe difficulty breathing, doctors were concerned and baffled by the teens’ alarming lung injuries. After piecing together extensive patient histories, the pulmonologists at CW were able to uncover the common link: vaping. “No one at that time was aware of how bad it was, both the pervasiveness of vaping and the damage it causes, especially in kids,” said Dr. Louella Amos ’95, a pediatric pulmonologist at CW and one of the doctors involved. “We weren’t even asking our patients about it. Cigarettes maybe, but not vaping.”

Shortly after their discovery, the hospital held a joint press conference with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to alert healthcare providers and parents to the hidden dangers and proliferation of vaping. As the on-call pulmonologist, Louella was tapped to answer reporters’ questions. The next day, another Wisconsin teenager with similar symptoms was admitted to the hospital.

Louella and her team at CW were the first in the country to publicly link these acute lung injuries in teens with vaping. Soon after the press conference, doctors nationwide began reporting similar symptoms in teenagers, and media outlets spread the news widely. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a coordinated response on a national scale.

Since that pivotal summer, Louella has spoken to students throughout the state, including at USM in 2020, about the dangers of e-cigarettes. She has testified in Madison in support of Tobacco 21, an effort to limit the sale of nicotine and tobacco products to people over 21 in Wisconsin, consulted with elected officials, and served as an expert voice for dozens of local, state, and national news organizations.

For Louella, who also works in CW’s pediatric sleep center (the only one in the state), the national spotlight doesn’t change the nature of her work day in and day out with patients. “It makes me feel good to know that we can make a positive difference in peoples’ lives, and it’s one of the reasons why I will probably never retire,” she said.