North Lamar Parent Warns Students About Vaping

Firsthand knowledge gives a strong impact

Amanda Faulkner, North Lamar parent of three, spoke to the high school students this week to warn them about the dangers of vaping.

Thinking vaping was a better option to smoking on her road to quitting, Faulkner told the students she landed in the hospital this fall from a simple cough causing one of her lungs to collapse. A tube was painfully inserted into her chest cavity for several days until it could be removed. While getting ready to leave the hospital, again she coughed causing her lung to collapse a second time.

She told the students she was first in denial that the cause of her collapsed lung was from vaping. It didn’t make sense because she had always been active with her family and felt she was in good shape. The doctors finally convinced her that vaping was the cause of her illness. She has since taken the lead to let others know the dangers of vaping.

Faulkner’s lung now works at about seventy-five percent and said simple things like walking to the mailbox can give her shortness of breath. Only time will tell if she’ll fully gain the lung capacity she once had.