A 35-year-old woman who now can't leave the house without an oxygen tank has now warned others about the dangers of vaping, and says she wishes she could "turn back time".
Lucy Turchin began vaping at the age of 31, in a bid to give up smoking, but after just five months she began experiencing a "chemical burning feeling" in her lungs.
She noticed some improvements when she stopped vaping, but, when she resumed seven months later, the pain began all over again.
After initially being misdiagnosed with asthma and anxiety, a high-resolution computerised tomograph (CT) scan revealed Lucy was in fact suffering from hypersensitivity pneumonitis, an immune system disorder that causes inflammation of the lung tissue.
Doctors have reportedly ruled out cigarettes as having caused Lucy's hypersensitivity given that her lung issues began shortly after she switched to vaping.
The Mail Online reports that Lucy's condition is now so serious that she's had to drop out of her master's degree programme and has even had to cancel her wedding.
She's also spent £24,000 ($30,000) on treatments, and has to go to the hospital every single week to get steroids to control her condition.
Lucy, who lives in Washington State in the US, told the publication: "I hardly ever leave my house because of the risks of exposure to smoke and vape fumes while out in public. This is all terrifying to me. I am traumatised and have a lot of fear.
"I would do anything to go back in time and have made a different choice. I cry a lot and wonder why this happened to me. The world seemed to be at my fingertips before this."
Although she still hopes to get married and complete her master's degree one day, Lucy, who now struggles to catch her breath, is in such pain that she struggles to think about the future.
Lucy, who dreams of one day qualifying as a therapist, has since shared her story via TikTok, where she reportedly receives around three to five messages each day from those who've also become ill after vaping.
She's now issued the following warning: "People need to be made aware of the risks. But also they need to be made aware that we cannot and will not truly know the risks until more millennials and Gen Zs are dead from vaping.
"We will not know until it is too late. I wish vaping was illegal in the USA. But of course, I wish that. Because then I probably never would have vaped. And this would have never happened to me. And the beautiful life I had been building would be mine."
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