A 20-year-old vaper was told she might not survive to see her 40th birthday after the near-constant urge to vape led to her burning two holes in her lungs.
Karlee Ozkurt, from Wisconsin, picked up the habit in 2018, when she was 15, because she thought it made her look “badass.” Soon she was relying on the device so much that she was smoking an entire device of 600 puffs a day.
Doctors told him to stop vaping after his right lung collapsed for the first time in November 2021, making him feel like his organ was “on fire.”
But after three months of “intermittent vaping,” she returned to using the devices full time – only to suffer a second collapsed right lung a year later.
Due to her serious condition, doctors then had to fuse the lung to her chest wall in hopes of preventing further collapses, and urged her to stop vaping.
Ms Ozkurt returned home after the procedure in November 2022, but says she still struggles to quit because she is so addicted to the high of nicotine.
Karlee Ozkurt, now 20 and from Wisconsin, said she started vaping at school when she was 15 to look “badass.”
Pictured above is one of Ms. Ozkurt’s vapes. She said she’s a fan of Elf bars for their fruity flavors, like blueberry and watermelon.
Ms Ozkurt said: “You never think this sort of thing will happen to you – but it happened to me. My lungs felt like they were on fire.
“I fell into the trap of thinking vaping was cool, but it’s stupid.” I didn’t realize it until it was too late.
“And the worrying thing is that I still don’t know if I caused irreparable damage because we don’t know the long-term effects.
“I could die at 40 or 50 – and all because of a five-year habit I was pushed into by my peers.”
Ms. Ozkurt said she became addicted to Elf bars, disposable vapes in blueberry, watermelon and grape flavors.
She told DailyMail.com that she had now managed to go two weeks without vaping, but was worried about being able to use the device again.
Initially marketed as a way to quit smoking traditional cigarettes, studies are beginning to suggest that vapes are no less dangerous, citing a mixture of more than 7,000 chemicals in the toxic smoke.
People may also blow on these devices hundreds of times a day, increasing the risk of diseases including cancers and high levels of inflammation in the lungs, which can damage organs.
Tobacco use among 11- to 18-year-olds has increased by almost a quarter compared to last year, according to estimates. The CDC, however, cautions against this comparison because in 2021, surveys had to be conducted at home due to the pandemic. This may have affected the results
The maximum level of nicotine allowed in a vape is set at 20 milligrams of nicotine per milliliter of liquid (two percent) in Europe, the United Kingdom and Canada. These devices last approximately 550 to 600 puffs. In the United States, it’s pretty easy to find a device or pod with up to 5% nicotine.
About one in ten high school students now vape, and many are drawn to the habit because of the fruity flavors available in brands and advertising aimed at teens. Half of them become addicted, according to figures.
And more are expected to pick up the habit, with analysts suggesting the market will nearly double from $22.45 billion in 2022 to $39.1 billion by 2032.
And Ms Ozkurt is far from the first young person to suffer a serious injury from vaping, with previous cases including a 25-year-old man in California and a 19-year-old vaper in Florida.
She said she started vaping in 2018, during her sophomore year of high school, after seeing her older friends doing it, who would later purchase the devices for the minor.
In Wisconsin, it is not legal to purchase and use vapes under the age of 18.
“I should have known from the start that it wasn’t a good thing,” she said.
“But I wanted to look like a badass doing it. I was 15, naive and impressionable.
Ms Ozkurt says she quickly became dependent on these devices because of the rush she felt from nicotine, particularly if she was anxious or stressed. She started blowing more and more to chase away the effect.
But in November 2021, her right lung collapsed while she was working in the service industry.
Ms. Ozkurt initially went home thinking she had pulled a muscle, but after a sleepless night, pain and difficulty breathing, she went to the emergency room.
A chest X-ray later revealed that his right lung had collapsed.
A collapsed lung occurs when a hole appears in the side of the lung, preventing it from inflating and deflating properly to allow a person to breathe normally.
Her lung was reinflated using a syringe after doctors put her on oxygen to help the hole heal – but they warned that if she didn’t stop vaping it would happen again.
However, after three months of trying, Ms Ozkurt resumed the habit – only to suffer the same lung collapse again a year later.
She said: ‘MMy lung collapsed again after months due to a severe chest cold.
“The risk of recurrence increases each time this happens. So this time I needed surgery to fuse my lung to my chest wall.
“After a CT scan and surgery on my lung, my doctor noticed real scarring at the bottom and all along it.
“When I was conscious, I asked him what could have caused it – and he said it was definitely from vaping.”
Ms Ozkurt has now received treatment to fuse her lung to her chest wall using chemicals that intentionally cause scarring, which triggers the fusion.
Doctors do this to seal the pleural space – or the airless space between the lungs and chest – to help the organs inflate and deflate.
They said this helps ensure the problem doesn’t happen again.
Ms Ozkurt said: “You don’t need to vape to live – it’s just a habit to break.
“It takes three, four weeks to break a habit – I don’t want it to last the rest of my life.
“I have friends a year or two younger than me – I want to tell them, don’t even start.
“It’s not cool, it’s just stupid.”