A NINETEEN-year-old was left fighting for her life after vaping left her lungs looking like "shattered glass". The woman went to A&E after suffering from shortness of breath, chills, a cough and a high temperature for a week. Doctors initially diagnosed her with bacterial pneumonia, after chest X-rays showed "ground glass opacities" in her lungs.
These are hazy areas that show up on lung scans, indicating damage caused by pneumonia or other respiratory diseases. The term comes from a technique in glass-making where the surface of the glass is blasted by sand to give the glass a hazy or frosted look. Normally lungs appear black on X-rays and CT scans, but hazy grey areas suggest that air sacks in the lungs could be filled with fluid or other substances.
After a course of antibiotics failed to clear up the woman's symptoms, doctors were left scratching their heads. It was only after she shared that she'd been using her boyfriend's vapes for the last month that doctors were able to diagnose her with e-vaping–induced lung injury (EVALI). EVALI is a term used to describe acute respiratory illness caused by the toxic effects of chemicals used in vaping .
According to medics, the e-cig induced illness presents like an atypical viral illness, with shortness of breath, cough, chest pain, and fever being the most common symptoms. The woman suffered through her symptoms for a week before visiting the emergency department, a Case Challenge report published to Medscape said. Working as .