Amidst claims that electronic cigarettes are safe, an American teenager suffered catastrophic lung damage after vaping every day for three years.
Maddie Nelson, 18, started to feel ill earlier this year but last month experienced severe back and kidney pain. The student, from Utah, USA, was rushed to hospital struggling to breathe but the oxygen that medics gave her did not work
The decision was made to put her into a medically-induced coma while she battled for life.
Maddie was given steroids and was brought out of the coma after three days, she is now breathing on her own but still needs oxygen at night for the tightness in her chest. Maddie shared photos of herself in the hospital as she urged people to quit vaping:
“I am sharing my story so you all are aware that there is something crazy in these pens that is not safe and almost cost me my life.
‘I used to just tell myself it won’t happen to me, but it can and will happen to you too…take my advice, don’t smoke, don’t vape.”
The medical community has urged caution, saying electronic cigarettes have only been around for a decade and it is too early to promote them as ‘safe.’
