Chelsea Connor
A 22-year-old man was given one percent chance of survival after developing an addiction to vaping, his family have said.
Fargo man Jackson Allard was rushed into hospital back in October after complaints of stomach pains as doctors scrambled to find a diagnosis.
His symptoms were initially put down to Influenza 4 and double pneumonia, but things quickly took a turn for the worse.
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Allard was said to have picked up vaping as he figured it’s ‘better than smoking’. While e-cigarettes are FDA approved in the US, there’s no way of knowing the long-term effects it has on the body.
Dr. Stephanie Hanson at Stanford explained: “Vaping or e-cigarette use is relatively new, so we don’t necessarily know a lot of the long-term effects of vaping and that’s honestly one of the scariest things about it.”
According to the World Health organisation, in every US state e-cigarettes are banned in all enclosed workplaces, including bars and restaurants. Aside from this law, vaping products are available to anybody over 21 years old to use as much as they please.
After picking up the addictive habit and falling ill, as weeks went by with no improvement, Jackson was rushed to University of Minnesota Medical Center to undergo a double lung transplant on January 1.
As his condition was so critical, doctor’s believed that a lung transplant would have been the only chance at saving his life.
Jackson’s Grandma Doreen Hurlburt said: “At one point a doctor said he had a one percent chance of living and we said, ‘He’s fighting, he’s fought for how many weeks we’re going to give him a chance to fight, we’re not going to stop any procedures or anything’.”
She fondly described her grandson as 'friendly, he’s outgoing, everybody’s just attracted to his energy and how much fun he is'.
Jackson has spent three months in hospital fighting for his life, and at one point his heart even stopped beating.
Doreen recalled: “I thought for sure we were going to lose him. I thought for sure he’s not going to survive this, but in my mind I kept picturing him coming home.”
While he’s on the path to recovery, Jackson still has a way to go before getting a clean bill of health, and will have to stay in Minneapolis for at least the next six months to attend regular check-ups.
His future is also affected, as he’s been told he can never smoke or drink alcohol ever again, and will need another lung transplant later in life.
Doreen explained: “He said, he just wants to make sure other people don’t do what he did, vape, and end up having to go through what he went through.”