Mum 'almost died' from vaping after being rushed to hospital unable to breathe
One mum had the shock of her life when she 'almost died' from vaping after being rushed to hospital unable to breathe.
Nottinghamshire mum-of-one Jodie Hudson found herself struggling to catch her breath simply walking around her home and mere days later she was admitted to A&E with vaping-related pneumonia.
Jodie, 26, was left terrified her toddler would grow up without a mother and has since used her horrific experience as a cautionary tale to warn others of the perils of the habit.
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Jodie swapped cigarettes for vapes two years ago - but never suspected what she assumed was a less harmful alternative would lead to a hospital admission.
The council worker, who is mum to two-year-old Dillon Hudson, said she was smoking her vape 'anywhere and everywhere' - and had no immediate plans to quit before becoming unwell.
"I started smoking cigarettes when I was about 18 and when I got pregnant with my son I quit," she revealed.
"Afterwards, when he was born, my partner was vaping and I just thought I'd have a go because it seemed healthier because it doesn't have all the tobacco in and I really liked it."
Jodie explained she 'found it to be a lot more addictive' than smoking cigarettes highlighting the attraction of being able to 'choose any flavour' and bypassing that 'residual flavour' that cigarettes have.
"I just got hooked on them," she continued. "When I was using disposable ones I went from buying them two to three times a week to every day.
"I was just smoking it anywhere and everywhere. It was like a shisha bag, it was a lot more leisurely than a nicotine addiction even though it was very much a nicotine addiction."
However, Jodie's entire world flipped upside down when she started experiencing severe breathlessness and was subsequently rushed to the hospital last Saturday (24 September) where doctors informed her of just how much of a harmful impact two years of vaping had on her lungs.
Jodie said: "The weekend before I'd smoked a whole vape a day and then on the Monday, I thought I had tonsillitis and really wasn't well. I couldn't eat, I struggled breathing, I kept waking myself up snoring because my breathing was that bad.
"On the Saturday I really wasn't feeling well and had a panic attack because I was so scared of how little oxygen I was getting, I just couldn't function. I was walking around the house and completely out of breath."
After 'struggling to walk', Jodie was left 'shaking and sweaty' while feeling 'so dizzy'.
"I could hardly get my words out - I hardly had energy to talk. I just wanted to sleep," she recalled. "When you can't breathe, you can't do anything."
At the hospital, Jodie was told she had extremely low blood pressure and her 'heart rate was through the roof' reaching highs of a staggering '130 bpm'.
The health scare has led Jodie to swear off the e-cigs for good - and the mum is now warning others to steer clear of the 'highly addictive' products.
"The doctors said it's obvious vaping is having an effect on my lungs," she said. "When they were considering admitting me, I thought I'm never going to get out of this hospital. I just wanted to see my son one more time.
"It was scary. I don't want my son growing up without any parents."
Jodie has since confessed she is 'full of regrets' over the impact both on her health and finances that vaping has caused.
"I'm now an asthmatic because of all this. I'm probably going to be on inhalers for the rest of my life," she shared.
The mum went on: "I have so many regrets - it's just been a waste of money and it's killing me. It's money I could've spent on life and now I have to spend more money on prescriptions.
"It's been such a wake-up call. Before I was staggering trying to quit vaping, now I've just done it cold turkey."
Jodie has since declared she's 'never smoking or vaping again'.
She added: "People always think it's not going to be them. It's never you until it's too late. This is definitely the wake-up call I needed, it's going to kill me sooner than anything else.
"Now I tell everyone to just quit - you don't need any other reason than your own health, save yourself. It's a waste, you're killing yourself."
Rhiannon Ingle