A mum has been left distraught after her 12-year-old daughter was admitted to an intensive care unit and put in an induced coma after vaping too much.
Mary Griffin and her daughter Sarah, from Belfast, ended up in the hospital after they thought Sarah’s asthma had been triggered.
Speaking to BelfastLive, Mary said: “It was a Sunday night, Sarah was getting ready for bed and said she didn’t feel great. She started coughing but because Sarah has asthma, we put that down to the change in weather as that has been a trigger for Sarah’s asthma before.
“Her cough was no different from any other time and she used her inhaler and nebuliser throughout the Sunday night into Monday morning.
“That morning I was taking my other two children to school when Sarah rang and said, ‘Come back mummy, I don’t feel well, I’m afraid’. I got home, gave Sarah her inhaler and nebuliser again and she seemed to settle.”
A while later, mum Mary popped out to the shop quickly and Sarah rang again, this time completely out of breath. She told her mum ‘I need a doctor’ as she was barely able to string a sentence together.
Her dad rushed her to the Royal Victoria Hospital where a nurse took Sarah’s vital signs. It was revealed her oxygen levels were “very low”. Mary said: “The next thing I knew, Sarah’s dad phoned me to say Sarah was in Resus. I went to the hospital, and Sarah was just in a blind panic, she was terrified.
“She was on oxygen and was linked up to all sorts of machines. There were medical staff all around her assessing her and they said she needed to go to ICU as she was deteriorating very quickly.”
Mary continued: “The doctor showed me an X-ray of Sarah’s lungs and explained one had been badly injured. The other was therefore working overtime and aggravating her asthma. Sarah also had an infection, so everything combined had a massive impact on her body, extremely quickly.”
After being admitted to the ICU, the team worked on Sarah for four and a half hours before putting her into an induced coma. Mary said it was “heartbreaking” to see her daughter in that condition.
“As her mum I just felt so helpless- it was a nightmare come true. Sarah has an older brother and two younger siblings and trying to explain to them what was happening was awful. They were asking if she was going to die, and I was saying, ‘Of course not’, but in my mind I was terrified that was a real possibility.
“I had to try and keep it together for them, but I was out of my mind with worry. I never thought something like this would happen to us, you never do.”
Thankfully, Sarah was able to go home just a few days later but is now using her experience to warn young people about the dangers of vaping.
Mary said: “The doctors explained that if Sarah hadn’t of been vaping, she would have been in a better position to fight off the infection. Vaping had left her lungs very weak. The doctors said if Sarah had of got to hospital any later the outcome would have been entirely different. That is something I can’t even think about.
“For the rest of her life Sarah will be classed as a high-risk patient if she is admitted to hospital because of the effect this has had on her physically. This isn’t a case of a hospital stay and that’s it over with. Sarah was discharged with steroids, new inhalers, and a new Personal Asthma Action Plan to help manage her asthma.”
For further information and support about vaping visit, https://nichs.org.uk/vaping.
