Sherie Canada from Abilene, Texas, had been vaping on and off for three years before getting sick in June. But while she believed her symptoms were because of the flu but doctors had a different diagnosis.
After going to the doctors, she was diagnosed with pre-pneumonia but continued to get more ill from there. Eventually, she was being taken to the ER where doctors found fluid as well as blood clots in her lungs.
Sherie was then admitted to the ICU where she was put into a medically induced coma on June 18.
The mother-of-three shared with the station:
“It was scary. I was praying and hoping that I woke up. You don’t think about it. Everyone else is doing it. They’re all OK. Everything’s fine and then you’re not.”
In total, she spent 24 days in the hospital, sharing how the hardest thing was watching her sons go through the ordeal. On her son’s 13th birthday, she was sent to the ICU and on her 15-year-old’s birthday, was incubated.
“I felt a lot of guilt and shame. I did this to myself,” Sherie said.
The mother-of-three shared the story on Facebook hoping that others could make become aware of the dangers of vaping:
“I was given a second chance for a reason.”
“I am telling this story not for attention but to let others know the risk of inhaling things into your lungs, you have no idea of how precious they are until they aren’t yours anymore and a machine is telling them to breath for you! I am sharing this today because I have seen so many cases or status updates on Facebook about mothers and fathers standing beside their children in the hospital or brothers and sisters as well, with chest tubes, or oxygen on them and wondering what it could be!”
So for, there have been 380 cases of lung illness reported from 36 states along with six death in six states. In each cases, have history of e-cigarette product use or vaping.