Woman, 35, left with vape induced illness after just four months

One woman is urging young people to stay away from vapes after just four months with the habit left her with a vape induced illness.

One woman is warning young people off of vaping after less than a year of using them she was left with a vape-induced illness.

Lucy Turchin, 35, told news.com.au that she picked up vaping as she believed it was a safe alternative to smoking, which she had quit a year before she began and missed.

The Washington D.C woman began to notice something wasn’t quite right with her breathing just four months after picking up the habit.

“This desperation for air came first. No matter what I did, I felt like I couldn’t get enough air. The symptoms would worsen when I would lay down,” she said.

“I felt all this pressure on my chest. I would stay up all night gasping for air. I also had pain and itching in my lungs.”

Ms Turchin began visiting doctor after doctor – estimating a whopping 50 in total – to speak about her lung issues and ask if it had anything to do with vaping.

Lucy Turchin has a vape induced illness. Picture: Facebook

But she was consistently told vaping was safe and instead told she had anxiety as nothing was coming up in her X-rays.

“As my symptoms worsened, I became more and more depressed,” Ms Turchin said.

“Every specialist I went to couldn’t find anything wrong with me. I finally decided it had to be the vape. So I quit. Quitting wasn’t even hard at that point. I just wanted my life back. I just wanted air. I had only been vaping for about a year at that point.”

Within six months of quitting vaping her symptoms disappeared and she felt as though she had got her life back.

Ms Turchin was still following up with doctors and an allergy expert diagnosed her with vocal chord dysfunction without performing any tests.

She started smoking cigarettes for four months and was completely fine but on a night out of friends she took a hit of a friend’s vape.

All the symptoms came back and she was furious, feeling let down by the doctors.

It all came to a head when, in February, someone blew a vape cloud in her face and she “felt her lungs swell up”.

“I was in so much pain. I cried and cried. My mum kept telling me to go to the ER,” Ms Turchin said.

Lucy saw 50 doctors about her illness. Picture: TikTok

“But I told her no, they never found anything. They never helped me. This time wouldn’t be any different.”

Eventually she was hospitalised and assigned a doctor who Lucy felt was actually hearing her out about her lungs.

The doctor ordered a high resolution CT scan of Ms Turchin’s lung and found hypersensitivity pneumonitis, which is inflammation of the lung tissue and is triggered in the immune system. after breathing in certain substances such as mould.

She cried when her concerns were finally heard and justified, and thanked the doctor for listening to her.

It’s been three years since Ms Turchin quit vaping and she is in constant pain and terrified about leaving the house in case she accidentally inhales vape smoke from a passer-by.

“I’m traumatised and depressed. I cancelled my wedding because I am too sick,” she said. “I spend a lot of time in hospitals and emergency rooms.

“The steroids that I’m prescribed are horrible for me emotionally, and also physically too. I’m scared. I’m angry at myself. I feel very alone.”

She said it has changed her life. Picture: TikTok

Ms Turchin has taken to social media in order to raise awareness about the damage vaping can do, predicting that in two decades there will be so many more like her.

She said the only thing she can do is make meaning out of what happened to her by helping save others – but she is often called a liar for her efforts.

“People need to know the dangers of vaping so they can make an informed decision. They need to know the risks,” Ms Turchin said, adding if she’d known the risks she would have never done it.

She wished more people who have been impacted by vaping induced illness would come forward, and that young people had been “lucky” so far regarding the consequences.

It comes as a crack down on vaping in Australia in a bid to stop young people from picking up the habit.

A crackdown on the importation of vapes, plain-packaging and a ban on flavours was announced in the May budget to tackle the health emergency of thousands of teenagers who have “gone nuts” for e-cigarettes.

But the second stage of that crackdown – licensing sellers and using that cash to boost enforcement measures at a state level – is the next phase of a world-leading crackdown.

There are also calls to ban ads for vapes on social media that target kids including on Snapchat and Instagram.

E-cigarettes can contain nicotine, heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals, according to the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care.

In 2019, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues a warning after 200 reports of lung disease emerged across the country, prompting Australia to closely monitor use.

Originally published as Woman, 35, left with vape induced illness after just four months