My best friend of 23 years spent the past two weeks in the ICU after a vape bought from 7-Eleven nearly took her life. These have been the darkest weeks imaginable—not just for her, but for her parents, loved ones, and for me, witnessing the sheer terror unfold day after day.
It started innocently enough. Amanda had a 103-degree fever and was sent home from urgent care being told she had the flu. Five days later, she collapsed at home after vomiting and was rushed to the ER. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and was almost discharged—but then a nurse noticed her oxygen levels plummeting dangerously low, so low that they thought the machine was broken and called for another. That moment likely saved her life. She was immediately transferred to the ICU, where doctors discovered her lungs were filled with blood and fluid. Essentially, she was drowning in her own blood, and if she had gone home that day, she wouldn’t have made it.
In the ICU, Amanda was placed on a ventilator while doctors worked frantically to stabilize her. Steroids, antibiotics, dialysis—they threw everything they could at her. But the blood in her lungs kept coming back every time they flushed them, and the coughing episodes were unbearable to watch. Her face would turn blue as she struggled to breathe, blood gushing into her respirator tube, gripping the bed handles as if sheer will could make it stop. It was horrifying—something out of a nightmare. By the fourth day, these episodes were happening two to three times every hour, with her oxygen stats dropping dangerously low each time.
By that day, Amanda’s kidneys had already failed. Her lungs started to fail too, a condition called ARDS. Seeing her parents so distressed as they sat by her bedside was heartbreaking; I can’t put into words how heavy that room felt. To give her body a fighting chance, the doctors sedated her completely, putting her on three heavy medications to rest her lungs and organs.
Slowly, her 29-year-old body began to respond. The bleeding stopped, her vitals stabilized, and she started fighting back. Doctors diagnosed her with EVALI—e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury—a recently recognized disease that has claimed over 38 lives in the U.S., with more than 2,000 reported cases. Amanda became the third diagnosed case in West New York—and the first to survive.
Today, Amanda is home. She’s resting, rebuilding her strength, and slowly training her body to walk again. She is one of the lucky ones, saved by tireless doctors, nurses, countless prayers, and a bit of luck.
I’ve seen countless news stories about the dangers of vaping, but none of them truly capture the horror we witnessed firsthand. I’m sharing Amanda’s story not to scare, but to save a life. Vaping is not harmless. It can happen to anyone—your friend, your sibling, your loved one. Please, don’t take that chance.
