An Ohio woman is fighting for her life after smoking entire e-liquid cartridge daily for seven years – the equivalent of 50 cigarettes a day, DailyMail says.
Amanda Stelzer, 34, started vaping in 2015 after seeing many of her friends doing so and thinking it would be fun.
Stelzer became an addict as she found herself going through around eight cartridges of vape fluid each week.
Suddenly in October 2019, she went to urgent care after suffering from breathing problems.
Doctors could not figure out what was wrong and sent her to a local hospital. Within the next 24 hours she was on life support.
Chest scans revealed she was suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome – a deadly condition that occurs when a person’s lungs become so damaged they fail to provide the rest of the body with enough oxygen.
Repeated studies have warned that vaping can cause severe damage to the lungs and heart, similar to smoking standard cigarettes.
Ms Stelzer, a cashier from Delaware, said: ‘I was crying because I was in so much pain. I was so scared.
‘The last thing I remember is someone handing me a form and basically saying I needed to sign this if I wanted to live – that was the consent form to be put on life support.’
She was on life support for about eight days, with doctors warning her family she may remain that way for at least three months.
Despite her severe illness, doctors could not figure out what was wrong with Ms Stelzer.
Not until her mother asked a nurse if this could have anything to do with her vaping prompted doctors to scan her chest.
Medical staff then confirmed that her diagnosis directly resulted from her vaping.
After two more weeks in the hospital, she was discharged, but she could not work, see friends and family or be around people using cigarettes and vaping for six months while her lungs healed.
