KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — A healthy 18-year old from Utah, the United States, was sent to the ICU in a medically-induced coma after she vaped every day for three years.
The Utah Department of Health has urged caution in using vape products, amid a rash of severe vaping-related illnesses reported to the department.
According to Fox13 Now, Maddie Nelson started out with zero nicotine vape juice, but eventually increased to 3 mg of nicotine.
She then mysteriously fell ill, which started with feeling sick over the course of a few months and having no appetite.
It then escalated and Nelson was unable to hold down any food and started running a fever.
“My temperature was so high, my brain just completely shut off,” Nelson recounted. “I thought I was in the hospital for one night, and I was actually there for four days.”
Maddie was put into a medically-induced coma for three days in the ICU at Timpanogos Regional Hospital, before the doctors figured out what was wrong.
She reportedly developed eosinophilic pneumonia, similar to what the Utah Department of Health has been reporting others around the state have been experiencing.
Nelson said doctors had told her: “When you inhale the moisture, it’s just creating the perfect environment for bacteria to grow inside your lungs and for infection to start. And that is basically what happened.”
According to the health department, the other cases also ended with severe illness and hospitalisation.
The Utah Department of Health said they are testing vape products to see if they can determine what in the products might be causing people to get sick.
