A Bridgeport woman says she almost died due to complications from using e-cigarettes.

Medical records obtained exclusively by News 12 Connecticut point to an alarming public health hazard posed by vaping.

The documents from Bridgeport Hospital say 40-year-old Deanna Lopez contracted lipoid pneumonia, a rare condition that occurs when fat particles enter the lungs from using e-cigarettes. As a result, Lopez had to be placed in a medically induced coma for five days.

"It was very, very scary," she said.

Lopez, a mother of three and National Guard veteran, says she used to be a smoker, but several years ago her doctor suggested she begin vaping instead because he said it was safer.

"Vaping was basically the new thing besides smoking cigarettes," she said.

Lopez says after using e-cigarettes for about a year she developed breathing problems, which got so bad she ended up collapsing back in August and almost died.

She added that it was a very close call because if she did not go, "I would have been dead the next day."

"I got so scared, I told them I couldn't breathe on my own anymore," Lopez said. "And that's when they had my family leave the room and they put me out for five days."

She says every time she sees somebody vaping, "I'm like, you don't want to go through what I went through because you feel like you're dying, you feel like you can't breathe, you can't take in a breath, and you don't want to look at your loved ones thinking you might not wake up," says Lopez.

Lopez is out of the hospital, but says she will have to remain on oxygen for the next six months.