Vaping addict left on life support with deadly lung condition
A woman who was vaping the equivalent of 50 cigarettes a day ended up in hospital with a severe lung condition.
34-year-old Amanda Stelzer took up the habit in 2015 and developed an addiction so strong that she was getting through eight cartridges of vape fluid a week.
She ended up being hospitalised after suffering serious problems with her breathing and had to be put on life support for eight days.
Doctors couldn't initially figure out what was wrong with her and it was only when her mother told nurses Amanda was a heavy vaper that they decided to do a scan of her chest and get an idea of how serious her condition was.
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In the end, she was diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome, a potentially lethal affliction which results in a person's lungs failing to provide enough oxygen to properly nourish the body.
This diagnosis was a direct consequence of her vaping, and it took her a total of six months for her lungs to properly heal.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome, also known as wet lung, can kill a person by not providing enough oxygen for the body to work properly, potentially leading to organ failure and death.
It was a scary time for Delaware-born Amanda and during her recovery, she couldn't even be around cigarette or vape smoke for months at a time.
She 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."
"I was lucky that owned my car at the time and my insurance covered my treatment, but I still got into a lot of debt. It was depressing. I was happy to be alive but I was sad that I couldn't work and I couldn't be around family and friends without a mask."
She now hopes sharing her experiences will help prevent someone else avoid what happened to her, warning that 'it seems harmless until it isn't'.
While they might be a healthier option when compared to smoking cigarettes, vaping is still harmful to your health and vaping in such huge quantities as Amanda did is certainly not good for you.
In the UK, the number of children admitted to hospital because of vaping has quadrupled in a year and there are concerns that the devices which were originally intended to be a means of getting people to quit smoking are instead replacing them for new generations.
Certain flavours of vapes can also carry a higher risk, with the chemicals in cinnamon, vanilla and honey vapes more likely to inflame the lungs.
Meanwhile, some studies have warned that a chronic vaping habit can be just as bad for you as smoking actual cigarettes.
Joe Harker