A 22-year-old man who was given a one percent change of surviving after developing a vaping addiction uttered some devastating final words before being placed on life support.
Jackson Allard, from North Dakota, was rushed into hospital back in October after complaints of stomach pains as doctors scrambled to find a diagnosis.
Allard was said to have picked up vaping as he figured it’s ‘better than smoking’.
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After picking up the addictive habit and falling ill, Jackson was rushed to University of Minnesota Medical Center to undergo a double lung transplant on 1 January as his condition did not improve.
His symptoms were eventually put down to having Influenza 4 and double pneumonia, and with that things quickly took a turn for the worse.
As his condition was so critical, doctor’s believed that a lung transplant would have been the only chance at saving his life.
Jackson has spent three months in hospital fighting for his life, and at one point his heart even stopped beating.
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Doreen Hurlburt, Jackson's grandmother, has teamed up with family friend Angela Dows to launch a GoFundMe to provide 'extra support' to Jackson throughout his recovery, as well as helping his parents with costs as they remain by his bedside.
Jackson's condition has been detailed in the fundraiser, but also the heartbreaking final words that the 22-year-old uttered before he was intubated in hospital.
"I am scared, I don’t want to be alone," Jackson said to his family.
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The post continued: "He has not been alone. By his side is his mother Jaime, grandmother Doreen and/or his father Ryan.
"Someone is always there and will be until he is ready to come home. Because we are holding on strong to hope he will make it home."
Doreen 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’.
"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."
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While e-cigarettes are FDA approved in the US, the long-term effects it has on the body are unknown.
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.”
Callum Jones