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Emma Guinness
An American student has issued a stark warning over the dangers of vaping after the popular practice contributed to her ending up with a collapsed lung.
Grace Brassel, 23, found herself in hospital twice within the space of a week when her lung collapsed and was forced to endure painful emergency surgery. Watch below:
Taking to TikTok to recount her painful experience, she explained that she first knew that something was seriously wrong when she coughed up blood.
While a tube was put into her lung on the first visit and she was discharged, a week later she was coughing up blood again and that's when doctors had to operate.
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She explained that her situation was not just caused by vaping, although it was a contributing factor.
"This didn't happen directly because of vaping but the vaping could have killed me," she said, adding that the situation was worsened by her tall and slender frame.
Brassel then recounted the painful surgery that was used to reconnect her lung tissue to force it to work again.
"They take a really rough and sharp scrubber thing and they go inside and they scrub my lung and my rib until it's really raw and inflamed, almost like a horrible rug burn on the inside of your organ," she said.
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"When I woke up from the surgery, I asked the nurse if this is what death is, if I was dying," she added.
"It was one of the most horrific pains I'd ever experienced and it would not end .. one of the nurses started crying because she felt so awful, because it's known to be one of the most horrific surgeries ever."
The student explained that she then had to have a tube inserted into her lung once again to drain any leftover fluid.
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Brassel is now hoping that by sharing her story, it will discourage other people from vaping.
She captioned her painful account: "I got to see how sensitive our lungs are at such a young age. It happened bc of my stature, but please respect your lungs [sic]."
And if the comments section on TikTok is anything to go by, Brassel's story is having its desired effect.
One viewer wrote: "I am NEVER vaping again because of this video."
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"I had this happen to me because of my genetics, tall and thin, [and] I'm never vaping again because of it," shared a second.
"This is why I’m not a fan of vaping and people are so rude about it," added a third. "I never want someone to experience this."
"I'm a high school counsellor & former teacher [sic]," wrote a fourth viewer. "You need to continue sharing your story because the vaping epidemic in our youth is out of control."
In the UK, an estimated 6.4 percent of the population vaped in 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics.