[Camerota:] The CDC says the number of vaping related cases is surging. More than 1,800 lung injury cases now and 37 deaths nationwide. The first death was reported in august, and now months later, health officials still do not know exactly what is behind this outbreak. In Georgia, vaping is thought to have caused one woman's death but officials determining that officially determining that is proving very difficult. So let's bring in CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who joins us with that story. What's the problem, Sanjay?
[Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Cnn Chief Medical Correspondent:] Well, I mean, this is a complicated investigation. Keep in mind, as much as we've talked about this, what we're talking about is basically a new mysterious illness, and lots of different moving parts. We wanted to find out the same thing. What specifically is making this take so long but also see it from the perspective of a family who is dealing with tragedy that is now going through this trying to get some answers.
[Dr. Kevin Davis, Mary Kerrie Davis' Husband:] A 52-year-old healthy lady, that doesn't happen.
[Gupta:] Kevin Davis, a doctor himself, had no idea why his wife, Mary Kerrie, had suddenly become ill in early September.
[K. Davis:] I still can't believe it. Feel so bad and feel so guilty. You know, that how a physician, I can't take care of the people in my own house.
[Gupta:] A flu swab came back negative. Mary Kerrie's blood work was initially unremarkable. But her family had a suspicion. Vaping.
[Davis:] No idea the amount of vaping she was doing. According to her phone messages, the amount of things she was purchasing to vape.
[Gupta:] But proving that vaping was the cause was going to be much more difficult than they could have imagined.
[Maggie Davis, Mary Kerrie Davis' Daughter:] She sent me a picture of her in the ER. She said I'm on an IV. I have pneumonia.
[Gupta:] Just as she was admitted to the hospital, her daughter Maggie began hearing about an outbreak of a mysterious illness.
[Julia Chatterley, Cnn Anchor:] Doctors are reporting an uptick in the cases of severe lung disease which they say could be caused by vaping.
[M. Davis:] And I texted her back. I said, I hope it's not the vaping disease. Two days later, she had died.
[Gupta:] Wow, two days?
[M. Davis:] Yes, two days.
[Gupta:] Dr. Tom Karisni showed us her x-rays which tell the story.
[Unidentified Male:] The thing that was out of the ordinary was how quickly she deteriorated over the next 48 hours.
[Gupta:] Just take a look how much they changed. The one on the right is normal. Clear. But the picture on the left shows lungs that are totally obliterated.
[Unidentified Male:] We call that whiteout. It's a bad sign. Basically means air is not moving in the lungs at all.
[Gupta:] In the current outbreak, more than three dozen patients have died of vaping related disease. And Mary Kerrie may be counted among them. But nearly two months after she died, the family still doesn't know for sure. It shows how challenging it is to investigate a disease we're seeing for the first time. [on camera]: Are you hearing from the public health officials?
[M. Davis:] Yeah, we're hearing some from them, but it's just, you know, everybody in the different departments seems to have a different answer to these questions that we're asking.
[K. Davis:] It's so frustrating and I'm empowered. I can I have a status in the community. I know how to speak the language, and I couldn't get to anybody. Imagine how people who don't have any of those things, how would they ever make it known?
[Gupta:] And in Mary Kerrie's case, it's a complicated picture, because like so many of the people with vaping related disease, she wasn't just using nicotine but also THC, illegal in her home state of Georgia.
[M. Davis:] I think it was to a point where she was vaping more than she'd ever smoked cigarettes.