A young mother who feared she was having a heart attack actually had lungs that were filling with fluid from her vape.
Cloey Eyes, 25, from Ocala, Florida, had been vaping nonstop for two years. She became addicted to the devices when she used them to quit smoking cigarettes.
The mother-of-five knew the vapes weren’t the best for her lungs, but she kept puffing, believing they were a better option than her previous vice.
In July, however, she woke up in the middle of the night with ‘sharp pains’ in her chest, gasping for air as she struggled to breathe.
‘I was terrified at the pain and I felt like I was going to die as I was scared I was going to not be able to breathe at all,’ she said.
Eyes rushed to the emergency department, where scans quickly revealed she had bronchiolitis obliterans, better known as ‘popcorn lung’.
The condition is a rare type of lung disease, triggered by inflammation in bronchioles, the smallest airways in the lungs, which become scarred.
Doctors also found an oily substance building up in Eyes’ lungs, which they said was the fluid she had breathed in from puffing on her vape.
Cloey Eyes (pictured), 25, from Florida, said she used vapes constantly in the lead-up to her hospitalization
‘I woke up at 2:30am in the morning and my chest felt like it was having a heart attack,’ Eyes said.
‘I had really bad pains in my chest and had to lean over. I couldn’t catch my breath and I had to hit myself in the chest multiple times to be able to catch my breath.
‘It was a sharp pain in my chest, but it also was a suffocating feeling.’
She said scans initially detected an ‘oil pocket’ in her left lung, before the same was also found in her right.
Doctors found that both lungs also had vape oil around them, though they weren’t able to tell how much had collected in her body.
‘It was scary to hear this,’ she said. ‘It’s the oil from the vape and this is thickening up as you [breathe it in] and attaching itself to your lungs’.
In rare instances, vapes have been linked to lipoid pneumonia, a condition where oily substances inhaled while puffing on e-cigarettes build up in the lungs causing inflammation and damage.
Patients normally suffer from a chronic cough, shortness of breath and coughing up blood or blood-tinged mucus.
Physicians say there is no good treatment for the condition.
In cases of bronchiolitis obliterans, steroids and an inhaler can reduce inflammation and help with breathing – in severe cases, a lung transplant may be required.
Those with the condition require life-long care to manage their symptoms and are advised to avoid air pollution, cigarette smoke, and people who are ill and could pass on infections.
Eyes is pictured above in the hospital while she received treatment for popcorn lung and fluid build up in the organs
‘There isn’t a good treatment for lipoid pneumonia, other than supportive care, while the lungs heal on their own,’ Dr Stephen Broderick, a lung cancer surgeon at Johns Hopkins University, previously said.
‘The single most important thing you can do is identify what is causing it – in this case vaping – and eliminate it.’
Eyes revealed she would use rechargeable disposable vapes, throwing them away when they ‘ran out of juice’.
She would puff on the device more than 300 times a day, and get through a 5,000-puff device every two weeks.
Although she would pick a different flavor every time, she said she would always opt for fruity varieties.
She started smoking cigarettes in 2020 shortly before the Covid pandemic, but quit in August 2023 because she ‘hated the smell’.
That’s when she started using vapes instead.
‘I used the vape more than when I smoked as it was handy and right there,’ she said of her addiction.
‘When I was smoking, the pack [20 cigarettes] would last me four days, so I would smoke around five cigarettes a day.
‘I knew vaping wasn’t any better than smoking, I just hated the smell of the smoke [from cigarettes] and needed to stop.’
Eyes’ condition was severe, and she had to stay overnight at the hospital before she was prescribed antibiotics, an inhaler and cough suppressant medications.
The mom claimed doctors said it would take her lungs at least a year to heal completely.
Popcorn lung is linked to diacetyl, a chemical compound found in some vapes and used to make different flavors for the devices. This is breathed in and causes inflammation.
Warning signs of the condition include coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, tiredness and night sweats.
Eyes (pictured) says she has now quit vapes, and urges others to do the same
Several vapers have now come forward to reveal they were diagnosed with popcorn lung after using the devices, although it is not clear how many cases have been linked to the devices nationwide.
In some cases, vapes have also been linked to heart attacks caused by the devices triggering inflammation in the blood and raising blood pressure.
Eyes has now quit vaping, and says she would ‘never pick up a vape again’.
‘I went cold turkey and quit vaping,’ she said. ‘I feel 10 times better now as I have stopped completely. My lungs feel better and I don’t feel out of breath all the time…
‘I would tell people to put the vape down, especially if you’re a parent. You don’t think it’s going to happen to you. I didn’t think it would [happen to me].
‘Even if you don’t go through the pain, the amount of chemicals going through your lungs is probably knocking about 10 years off your life.
‘I turned 25 last Saturday, and to think I could have lost my life from vaping is just not worth it.’
About one in 20 Americans vape, statistics suggest. The habit is much more common among those between 21 to 24 years old – 15.5 percent of the age group uses the devices.
Many become addicted and describe using them almost constantly during the day, which may raise the risks of serious complications.
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