Mom who vaped because she thought it was cool rushed to hospital after she suddenly

A mother who vaped for years feared she was having a stroke when she suddenly was unable to read or speak. 

Lydia Ward was using e-cigarettes at home at the end of October when she was struck by intense fatigue and dizziness. Her vision suddenly blurred, and she began feeling light-headed.

The panicked 34-year-old from Georgia, who’d been vaping ‘on and off’ for three years, called her husband and realized she couldn’t make out the words on her phone screen. 

‘It was like looking through a glass,’ Ward said. ‘It was very blurry.

‘I couldn’t read anything. The words didn’t make sense. I couldn’t remember how to read, it was very weird. I couldn’t read for a good 10 minutes.’

Her speech also became slurred as she failed to remember the names of friends and acquaintances. Driving to pick up her daughter from school, her mom in tow, she couldn’t even recognize the school principal. 

‘[My mom] started mentioning people’s names just to make sure I remembered. It was a weird couple of hours of just having neurological issues,’ Ward said. 

Despite the scare, all of her tests later that day came back clear. Doctors believe the thousands of potentially cancer-causing chemicals in vapes constricted her blood vessels, potentially blocking blood flow to her brain, leading to stroke-like symptoms.

Lydia Ward (pictured here), 34, vaped ‘on and off’ for about three years when she suddenly found herself unable to read or speak, fearing she had a stroke 

The toxins can also induce inflammation in the eyes and vocal cords, leading to blurred vision and trouble speaking. 

The medical team urged Ward to drop the habit, which she said she had picked up after being influenced by friends. 

‘My friends were all doing it. It was social, it was boredom at home, stress relief,’ she said.

‘After the hospital I got home and threw [the vape] away, it scared me so bad.’ 

Ward’s warning comes as roughly six percent of US adults (about 17 million) report vaping regularly. 

The highest rates are seen in young adults aged 18 to 24, with more than 15 percent in that group reporting regular use.

Among children, about 1.6 million middle and high school students vape, though usage has declined since its peak in 2019.

Vaping has long been touted as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes, which is proven to cause nine in 10 cases of lung cancer, America’s deadliest form of the disease.

However, a growing body of research has found vaping could be linked to other long-term harms such as high blood pressure and stroke. 

Earlier this year, doctors writing in a medical journal detailed the case of a New Jersey man who died of aggressive lung cancer, the first case of its kind thought to be directly caused by e-cigarettes. 

E-cigarettes produce an aerosol by heating a liquid that usually contains nicotine, flavorings and a mixture of toxic chemicals.

Though all of Ward’s tests came back clean, doctors suspect her vaping caused changes in her blood pressure that led to stroke-like symptoms

Ward, pictured here, has since quit vaping and swears she will never again pick up the habit after her medical scare

When inhaled, this vapor can deliver harmful substances deep into the lungs, including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and other volatile organic compounds known to cause cancer.

These substances can damage lung tissue, and over time, this damage can lead to DNA mutations and inflammation which increase the risk of cancer.

‘People don’t realize when they are simply vaping what effects it can have,’ Ward said. ‘You might not feel it one day, but I feel like it can happen to anyone.’

Ward she wanted to use her story to warn others about what could happen. 

‘Imagine waking up one day and just not being able to put simple words together,’ she said. ‘I was scared I wasn’t going to be able to function. What if my vision didn’t come back? What if something was wrong with my brain?’

The makeup artist has stopped vaping altogether and has largely recovered from the incident, though she still has a slight cough and tightness in her chest. She has also vowed to never start vaping again. 

‘I really think it was linked and the people at the hospital said they have people come in all the time [with issues linked to the e-cigarettes].

‘My advice to anyone vaping, especially younger people, is to think long and hard about your health and if you want a long healthy life.’