Teen addicted to vaping finally quits after his lung collapses twice | Top Vip News

Health

By Tracy Swartz

A self-proclaimed “vaping addict” is calling for the devices to be banned after her right lung collapsed twice and she suffered permanent scarring.

“You never think this kind of thing will happen to you, but it happened to me. My lungs felt like they were burning,” said 20-year-old Karlee Ozkurt of Wisconsin. he told SWNS.

“I fell into the trap of thinking vaping was cool,” Ozkurt confessed. “But it’s stupid. “I didn’t realize until it was too late.”

Ozkurt’s plea continues a recent study that found That 11.3% of American high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, even as health experts warn of the risk of lung injury, heart attack, breathing difficulty and other dangerous side effects.

Ozkurt, a physician’s assistant from Eau Claire, started vaping as a high school sophomore after noticing his older classmates doing it.

He thought it looked great and would be less harmful than cigarettes, but for the first month he had to “force himself” to enjoy it when his lungs started to hurt.

“My older friends bought me my first vaporizer. It was extremely painful trying to inhale it,” Ozkurt admitted.

“I should have known from the beginning that it was not a good thing,” he added. “But he wanted to look like a tough guy while he was doing it. He was 15 years old, he was naive and impressionable.”

Over time, Ozkurt became accustomed to the sensation of inhaling and became addicted to the “nicotine buzz,” especially if she was anxious or stressed.

When the “buzz” faded, Gen Zers leaned in more and used one Elf Bar disposable vape a day to chase the feeling.

Three years later, Ozkurt’s right lung collapsed in November 2021 while vaping in the bathroom at work.

“Suddenly it felt like a muscle in my back had been torn. About an hour later, I started wheezing,” Ozkurt recalled, noting that she was sent home from work, but she didn’t think the pain was “serious enough” to go to the emergency room.

“But after a sleepless night, I was still in the same pain and couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was dying,” she continued. “I went to the walk-in clinic and told them my symptoms: chest pain, shortness of breath, and back pain. “They sent me to the emergency room immediately.”

A chest x-ray revealed that Ozkurt’s right lung had collapsed by 50%.

Doctors manually re-inflated it with a syringe, but warned him to stop vaping if he didn’t want it to happen again.

After three months of trying to kick the habit, Ozkurt began vaping regularly again.

In November 2022, his lung collapsed again after enduring a severe chest cold for months.

He underwent surgery to fuse his lung to his chest wall.

“After a CT scan and surgery on my lung, my doctor noticed some real scars on the bottom and along my lung,” Ozkurt shared. “When I was conscious, I asked him what could have caused it and he told me it was definitely due to vaping.”

After a year and four months of an “on and off habit,” Ozkurt quit vaping for good on February 28 and hopes to never use it again.

He wants more people to recognize that vaping is an addiction with real withdrawal symptoms, including uncontrollable whole-body tremors and extreme irritability.

He’s taking 1 milligram of Chantix, a pill that interferes with nicotine in the brain to prevent smokers from enjoying it as much, and is now “finally” on track to finish his first full month without vaping.

But Ozkurt fears the long-term health effects of years of vaping.

“I still don’t know if I have caused irreparable damage because we don’t know the long-term effects,” he lamented. “I could die at 40 or 50, all because of a five-year habit that my peers pressured me into.”

Now, Ozkurt is trying to pressure others not to vape.

“I have friends one or two years younger than me. I want to tell them not to even start,” she said. “It’s not great, it’s just stupid.”