A heartbroken widow shared the story of her wife who died of lung failure after switching from regular cigarettes to electronic ones, also known as e-cigarettes or vape.
44-year-old Amanda Lee Hall from the City of Sanford, who used to smoke half a pack of cigarettes in 2013, quit smoking after her dad became seriously ill due to smoking and switched to e-cigarettes thinking they would be much less harmful.
According to Daily Mail, “She switched to vaping but would puff on the device so much that her wife Kristen Hensley would joke there was a ‘fruity cloud’ following her wherever she went.”
“In the fall of 2019, things took a turn for the worse when the warehouse worker started struggling to breathe and was put in a coma. When she woke, she found herself struggling to use her hands and with a paralyzed voice box. She died a year and a half later.”
Amanda’s widow, Kristen, has now issued a warning to everyone who thinks vaping is a healthier option than smoking and said she wants to let everyone know it is equally harmful.
“If you know anyone who vapes, please ask them to stop. I don’t want anyone to go through what Amanda has been through,” she said.
“It’s not only the vapes containing THC, or bought on the black market… It’s the regular flavored vapes and those with nicotine that are also causing the vaping illness.”
She added, “It’s killing people. I have had several people say they thought the warnings about vaping were simply propaganda from the tobacco companies to get people to start smoking again. This is not true.”
According to Kristen, Amanda started smoking when she was only 14 years old and continued for the next 22 years.
“She would smoke ten Marlboro Lights a day,” she said.
But in 2014, she quit smoking and started using a vape after her father, who was a lifelong smoker, was diagnosed with a terminal lung condition.
“Almost every picture had her vape pen somewhere in it. She vaped nonstop,” Kristen told Daily Mail.
“I joked that she had a fruity cloud with her everywhere she went. She would take it into the movie theater or anywhere.”
“When I would complain, she would say that it was just vapor and she was just getting some low doses nicotine that helped calm her nerves.”
After vaping nonstop for five years, Amanda started having breathing difficulties in September 2019.
“Doctors believed she suffered the initial lung injury from vaping. The entire first hospitalization was due to the vaping injury. After that, they believe she had a previously undiagnosed autoimmune disorder that once her lungs were injured launched a full-out attack on them believing them to be the enemy.”
After being admitted to the hospital for the first time, Amanda stopped vaping, but unfortunately, she continued to struggle with breathing issues and lung problems.
“She was re-admitted to the hospital again in February 2020 for double pneumonia, and again in December 2020 after she woke up to find she had turned blue and could ‘barely stand up’,” per Daily Mail.
“I completely believed her lungs would heal from the vaping injury and she would be healthy again – but I was wrong,” said Kristen.
“I was told there was no meaningful chance of improvement and that it was unlikely she would ever be able to survive without the ventilator, especially as her stats wouldn’t improve – where they told me to say my goodbyes.”
“I was able to talk to her and hold her hand while she was dying until she closed her eyes and took her last breath.”
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Source: Daily Mail
