A 12-year-old boy was put into a coma after vaping caused damage to his lungs.
Mary Griffin of Belfast, Ireland, shared that her daughter Sarah had a cough and was not feeling well before going to bed on a recent Sunday night, but the family was not worried at first, as they thought the symptoms were caused by Sarah’s asthma.
“His cough was no different from other times, and he was on his inhaler and nebulizer all Sunday night into Monday morning,” Mary explained to Belfast Live.
At that moment, Mary left the house to take her other children to school when Sarah called.
“Sarah called and said, ‘Come back, mummy, I’m not feeling well. I’m scared,’” the mother said, recounting how she rushed home to put her daughter on an inhaler and nebulizer again, which seemed to calm her down.
“A moment later I hurried out to the store and Sarah called again, this time really out of breath, barely able to form a sentence, saying, ‘I need a doctor or go to the hospital,'” Mary recalled.
Twelve-year-old Sarah was placed in a coma as a result of struggling to breathe due to an infection and severely damaged lungs, exacerbated by her asthma. Heart & Stroke Northern Ireland
Sarah’s father immediately took her to the Royal Victoria Hospital, where a nurse reported that Sarah’s oxygen level was low.
“Sarah was just in a blind panic, she was terrified,” Mary said.
“He was on oxygen and connected to all kinds of machines. There were medical staff around him assessing him, and they said he needed to go to the ICU because he was deteriorating so quickly.”
When the doctor took an X-ray of Sarah’s lungs, they realized how badly one of them had been injured, explaining that the other was therefore working overtime to compensate, causing her asthma to worsen.
To make matters worse, Sarah had also developed an infection, which added to the stress on her tiny body.
The young girl was placed on a ventilator and could not breathe on her own. Heart & Stroke Northern Ireland
“When we got to the ICU, the team worked on Sarah for 4½ hours before having to induce her into a coma. There were tubes, wires and machines everywhere — it was heartbreaking to see it like that,” says Mary.
“As his mother, I felt so helpless – it was a nightmare come true.”
Mary tried to explain the situation to her other children and calm them down but said that “trying to explain to them what happened was horrible.
“They asked if he was going to die, and I said, ‘Of course not,’ but in my mind, I was afraid it was a real possibility,” shared the worried mother.
“As her mother, I felt so helpless – it was a nightmare come true,” said Mary. Heart & Stroke Northern Ireland
“I had to try and keep it together for them, but I was losing my mind with worry. I never thought something like this would happen to us — you never did.”
The 12-year-old was “very unstable” and was connected to a machine room that breathed for him and kept him alive as his body struggled to keep up.
“It’s very difficult for the doctors and nurses to find a balance for Sarah – if they manage her oxygen level, her blood pressure will go down, or if they fix another problem, another vital organ will go wrong. It feels like one step forward, two steps back. back — and that went on for days,” Mary said.
“At first, we really didn’t think Sarah would make it,” he admitted.
Sarah returned home a few days later, although the ordeal had left a long-term impact on her health. Heart & Stroke Northern Ireland
The first time doctors tried to bring Sarah out of the coma, the process failed and she had to be induced again.
“I had to help and hold Sarah’s hand to try and get it over with so the doctors could do what they needed to do,” Mary shared.
“I’m scared, and it’s horrible to see Sarah so scared.”
The team tried to bring him out of the coma again the next day. As doctors continue to rehabilitate her, the Griffin family finally begins to regain hope that Sarah will be okay.
The young girl returned home a few days later and has slowly recovered, although the ordeal has left a long-term impact on her health.
“For the rest of her life Sarah would have been classed as a high-risk patient if she was admitted to hospital because of the impact on her body,” Mary said, adding that her care had been moved to Difficult to Control. Asthma Clinic at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.
“Sarah has been left very lethargic,” added Sarah’s mother. “He’s always full of energy, always talking and traveling, but he’s still recovering and not back to normal … He still has a long way to go.”
The mother of four explained that doctors warned her that if Sarah didn’t use vaping “she would be in a better position to fight the infection,” because vaping had weakened her lungs so much.
“The doctor said if Sarah had gone to the hospital later, the outcome would have been completely different. That’s something I can’t even think about,” shared Mary.
Experts are increasingly sounding the alarm, warning of known and unknown effects of vaping, including shrinking testicles, collapsed lungs, “vaper’s tongue” and a host of other disorders.
“People can go on to develop serious health conditions as a result of their vaping, which can also worsen existing conditions such as asthma,” Fidelma Carter, head of public health at Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke, told Belfast Live.
“Our position on vaping is that we recommend avoiding vaping other than short-term attempts to quit smoking and would urge people: if you don’t smoke, don’t vape.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
