A teenager in the United States has suffered serious lung damage, with doctors blaming the illness on vaping.
Maddie Nelson was admitted to hospital in late July after experiencing weeks of nausea, vomiting and severe back and kidney pain.
After going to hospital, her "situation went from serious to potentially fatal", according to a Go Fund Me page set up by Nelson's family members.
- Auckland high school principal calls on Government to get tough on vaping 'epidemic'
- Outrage over tobacco giant Philip Morris' attempts to target poor Kiwis
- Vaping business booming in New Zealand
"My temperature was so high, my brain just completely shut off," Nelson told Fox 13 news. "I thought I was in the Payson hospital for one night, and I was actually there for four days."
Nelson said doctors eventually found the problem was with her lungs, and they believed it was linked to her vaping habit.
The 18-year-old student from Utah said that she had vaped every day for three years, starting with zero nicotine vape juice before eventually increasing to 3mg of nicotine.
"I thought vaping was fine," Nelson told Fox 13 news. "I did all the tricks all the time."
Doctors told her the damage was some of the worst they had seen.
"I had fat particles growing inside my lungs that were related to the glycerin in vape juice," she explained. "So then my lungs were full of fluid. They said that my chest X-rays were one of the worst they've ever seen," she said.
"The doctors said that it was definitely from vaping."
Nelson's family is now warning others about the dangers of vaping.
"Maddie's generation and those after her are the guinea pigs of the popularising of the 'vape life' and after only a few years we are seeing some pretty scary side effects," her siblings Sadie, Andrea and Dylan, wrote on the Go Fund Me page.
"Next time you reach for your juul and feel good about not smoking, think again."
Newshub.
