A MUM claims vaping almost killed her when she discovered the habit was “frying her lungs like hot chicken”.
Hannah Roth said she picked up vaping due to the stress of the pandemic lockdown and was soon puffing “every hour of the day”.
The 30-year-old began to hear a “popping” sound in her lungs last month when breathing and developed a fever of 104°F (40°C).
The mum-of-two was horrified when doctors revealed she had pneumonia triggered by vaping, as she had no idea this was a potential side effect.
Scans revealed her lungs were like someone in their 80s or who had been smoking for a decade, and an x-ray reportedly showed the deterioration of her lungs.
Since then, the receptionist has refused to touch a vape after the doctor warned her that if she continued, she would “die”.
Hannah, from Tennessee, US, said: “The doctor came in and showed me my x-ray and said, ‘Do you vape?’ and he said, ‘That’s why you have pneumonia’.
“He told me that if I kept on [vaping] then I was going to die pretty much. He took my vape from my purse and threw it in the trash can.
“He said, ‘If you keep smoking these, then you’re not going to be able to breathe’.
“It was quite scary as a mother. I knew I couldn’t vape again as I’ve got two kids to take care of.
“He said ‘This is not what the lungs of a 30-year-old woman should look like, they look like a smoker of ten years’.
“I looked like I had the lungs of someone in their 80s, someone much older when he showed me that first scan.
“I was really mad at myself because I had no idea that vaping could do that.
“The doctor told me, ‘Every time that you’re hitting that vape, that vapour is going into your lungs, and it’s like frying hot chicken in there’. The intensity of it was frying my lungs.
“That’s why it was popping when I was breathing.”
My advice would be just don’t vape, don’t pick it up and hit it. Even if you think you have control over it, sometimes you just don’t
Hannah Roth
Hannah estimates that she was vaping every hour of the day for four years.
On the mum’s first trip to the doctors in early April, they misdiagnosed her with the flu.
One week later, when she went to the hospital’s emergency department in Scott County, they discovered she had pneumonia, a severe lung infection.
Hannah said: “I’d been vaping for four years. Before that, I’d never smoked in my life. I was vaping at least every hour, every day.
“I started during the Covid pandemic. The stress of being stuck in the house made me pick up on a bad habit one night. I just got addicted to it.
“Last month, I got sick. I was at work and started getting cold chills, and I really wasn’t feeling good.
“I came home, and I was running a fever. My lungs were making this popping sound every time I breathed.
“I thought I may have bronchitis because my chest hurt really bad.
“That went on for a few days, and then I went to the doctors, and they said I had the flu and gave me medicine.
“I was meant to get better, but I got worse.
“I had a fever of 104°F (40°C), and my mom made me go to the hospital, and she said, ‘There’s something else wrong with you’.
“[That’s when] they came back and said I had an obstruction in my right lung. They said it was pneumonia.
“It looks like a tree with branches; it’s called ‘tree budding’, and it’s basically the deterioration of your lung.
“It’s not supposed to happen unless you’re a really heavy smoker.”
Now Hannah has vowed to stay away from vaping in order to look after her seven and ten-year-old sons and hopes to warn others to ditch the vapes.
Hannah said: “I’ve been vape-free ever since I went to the hospital, and my lungs aren’t making the popping sound anymore.
“The doctor said if I stop vaping, my lungs will be able to heal as long as I don’t vape anymore.
“I still crave the vape, but I chew a lot of gum, which helps.
“Overall, I feel a lot healthier, and I’m saving money now, too, because I’m not buying a vape every week.
“My advice would be just don’t vape, don’t pick it up and hit it. Even if you think you have control over it, sometimes you just don’t.”
Most experts believe that vaping is nowhere near as harmful as smoking cigarettes.
However, we are now beginning to see the shocking health impact on younger people, with kids as young as nine showing up in hospital with devastating lung damage.
Here, we look at all the ways vaping could be damaging young bodies…
1. Damage sperm
Young boys who vape risk passing on damaged genes to their future children.
A study from the universities of Southampton and Bergen in Norway found smoking increased the chances of their children developing asthma, obesity and lung problems.
The scientists warned that vaping could also cause similar health conditions.
2. Slow down brain development
Vaping nicotine can permanently affect brain development in people under the age of 25, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It said that nicotine consumed during teenage years can harm the parts of the brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control.
It can also change the way new memories are formed, which can increase the risk of addiction.
3. Tooth decay
People who vape are more likely to experience tooth decay.
Decay is the top reason for hospital admission in under-18s in the UK.
Dr Michael Heffernan, a dentist at The Wessex Dental Specialist Care, which is part of Bupa Dental Care most vapes contain dangerous chemical that can harm your teeth.
But the very act of vaping and sucking in air could in itself lead to tooth decay.
4. Heart disease
Many kids think of vaping as less harmful than smoking cigarettes because there is no smoke.
However, some of the chemicals found in vapes can be damaging to the heart.
The American Heart Association (AHA) released a scientific statement linking vaping among teens and cardiovascular disease.
“The latest research suggests that vaping is as harmful to the body’s cardiovascular systems as cigarettes,” said Dr Hoang Nguyen, a cardiologist from MemorialCare Heart and Vascular Institute in California.
5. Lung disease
Vaping is giving children breathing difficulties and lung damage.
Dr Mike McKean, a paediatric respiratory consultant and vice president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said he was seeing a “disturbing” rise in children presenting to hospitals with breathing issues related to vaping.
“It’s a very difficult thing to study, firstly, because [vaping] not been going on for too long and it’s fair to say we’re not seeing large numbers of children with severe lung disease, but it’s certainly been reported now where people have developed lung disease related to vaping,” he told the BBC.
Jackson Allard, 22, was forced to have double lung transplant last year after his vaping habit left him on a life support machine.
