“I heard the doctor tell my parents to say their goodbyes because they were going to have to unplug me,” Addie Hunter, 18, tells PEOPLE
In October 2023, high school senior Addie Hunter was rushed to the emergency room because she couldn’t breathe. Doctors asked if she smoked or vaped . “I was like, ‘No. She’s not that crazy,'” her mother, Andrea Hunter, 44. recalls.
But on the fifth day in the hospital, her mother found a vape at the bottom of Addie’s backpack. “My heart just sank,” Andrea says. “I showed the doctor and they just went, ‘Oh no.’ They lost hope.'”
The northeastern Oklahoma teen had been vaping for six years. Her lungs were covered in blisters. Her left lung collapsed. She was put in a paralytic coma and placed on a ventilator. …