A US teenager addicted to vaping has vowed to never pick up the habit again after a “toxic chemical” in an e-cigarette left her hospitalised and needing life support.
Juliet Roberts, 18, started vaping at just 14-years-old when her school friends started using them and says she quickly became hooked, going through a disposable e-cigarette every two weeks.
However, four and a half years of using e-cigarettes took a toll on the teenager’s lungs as she was rushed to hospital on 7 January, struggling to breathe.
According to Ms Roberts, x-ray images revealed that years of non-stop vaping had damaged her lungs, in addition to an adverse reaction to a “fake” disposable e-cigarette containing a “toxic chemical” resulting in pneumonia.
The teenager was lucky to make a “miraculous” recovery after being placed on life support for five days by doctors. In total, she spent 12 days in hospital, but back home now, Ms Roberts was told she’s still at risk of having a heart attack due to strain on her weakened lungs.
She is still being supported by oxygen around the clock and is having nebuliser treatments at home twice a day with a long road to recovery remaining.
Ms Roberts, from Mount Pleasant, Tennessee, said: “The doctors told me that if I hadn’t made it there that night I would’ve lost my life. It was very scary.
“They told me I was basically dying, I’m so glad I went to the hospital when I did.”
After being admitted to the emergency department of TriStar Spring Hill, Juliet was then transferred TriStar Summit Medical Center the same day.
Juliet said: “When you get a lung x-ray it’s supposed to be black and the only white you’re supposed to see is your ribs.
“But my x-ray you could almost not even count some of my ribs because of how white it was.
“That was because of the damage from the vape and the pneumonia which I got from vaping.
“They think I maybe got hold of a fake disposable and I had a bad reaction to it because of some type of chemical that was in it and it just made my lungs want to stop working.
“They said obviously with how consistent I was with vaping it made the condition worse as well.”
Vasani Vanraj – USATodayNews – 2022-02-12.
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