An addict hooked to the oxygen tank after contracting rare pneumonia

A vaping addict, originally from Utah, now uses an oxygen tank after constantly smoking electronic cigarettes.

Aubree Butterfield told Facebook about her tragic story of how she contracted pneumonia after constantly "blowing" on her e-cigs for three years, until she started vomiting and spitting blood. .

The doctors discovered that vegetable glycerin, an ingredient commonly found in vape juice, had smothered the lungs of the 25-year-old woman and had diagnosed her as suffering from lipoid pneumonia.

Although the LPN has never smoked a cigarette before, she is unable to breathe on her own. She depends on an oxygen tank for the next few months of her recovery.

"I was vomiting constantly, I had very bad joints and terrible headaches, I had no energy," said Butterfield on Facebook.

"I felt that I could not breathe as if I did not have enough air in my lungs."

When Butterfield became addicted to the nicotine electronic cigarette three years ago, she was constantly blowing with the electronic cigarette, as would her college roommates.

"I thought it was cool," she added. "It helped my anxiety but towards the end it made my anxiety worse."

Butterfield was admitted to the Ogden Regional Medical Center in Utah on July 11, where X-rays revealed a virus. She was then transferred to the Brigham City Community Hospital, where additional tests revealed the rare pneumonia she had contracted.

The doctors told the young nurse that her heart was severely inflamed and feared she was about to have a heart attack, she said. Once they became aware of the severity of her condition, she was rushed by air ambulance to specialists from the University of Utah Hospital. .

"They did another chest x-ray and at that point they asked me, Have you ever smoked? Have you ever had a vape?" Butterfield shared.

"They told me that they had found some vape oil in the liquid that they had extracted from my lungs."

"They explained that I had lipoid pneumonia and that this had been caused by a vaping."

Sean Maddock, of the Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Medicine Program at the University of Utah Hospital, revealed that the number of patients suffering from vaping-related illnesses was increasing.

"Our biggest concern is that we simply do not understand what these vaping products are causing exactly for these diseases," he said.

"All of these cases had a breakdown of oil and tissues."

"We assume everything is due to vaping."

Butterfield is waiting to be connected to an oxygen tank at least until October. "I gave up vaping but I want it crazy," she said. "Every time I see some vape, it makes me want to do it."

US health authorities have launched an investigation into the outbreak of mysterious lung diseases related to the use of electronic cigarettes.

The investigation was triggered by the hospitalization of more than 150 people in at least 16 US states in recent weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced.