A 37-year-old woman who believed vaping would make her healthier as it would make it easy for her to stop smoking was hospitalized after she suddenly collapsed.
Julia Itzen was taken to a hospital as she was struggling to breathe or make a full sentence without pausing to rest.
According to NBC4, she was told by doctors that she had ‘vape lung.’ Julia is now warning teenagers and adults to stay away from e-cigarettes as they could end up with permanent lung damage.
Vaping initially helped her quit smoking.
In an interview with the news outlet, Julia said: “My sense of smell came back like, scar – like a bloodhound. My sense of taste came back.”
But even after she managed to stop using cigarettes, Julia continued to use the device for almost six years.
“It wasn’t just punk kids [doing it],” she expressed. “It was doctors and stockbrokers. It was adults trying to quit cigarettes.”
Julia says she never used bootleg vapes or THC, especially not after stories emerged of young and healthy people landing in hospitals from using e-cigarettes.
However, she collapsed on Christmas Day and found herself lying in a hospital bed. Vape lung was not technically the same illness that took the lives of at least 60 Americans but vaping was the only reason for Julia’s battered lungs.
“I’m 37-years-old and I want my mom,” she tearfully expressed in a video. Even after two weeks in the hospital, she is still not completely recovered.
“I look dead. I’m gone,” she said. “If you want to be like this, keep vaping.” She added: “I am so lucky to be alive, that it was caught.”
One internet user commented: “I’m sure she was using the THC vape from the st with that vitamin E oil.”
Another wrote: “Scary. Very scary.”
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