Stop Smoking Penn State! A Monroe County, Pennsylvania woman died Monday 12/23 from burns suffered from smoking a cigarette while using oxygen. The Lehigh County Coroner's office said it took her more than two weeks to succumb to her injuries.
Carol Hanna, 51, of East Stroudsburg, was pronounced dead at 7:40 a.m. Monday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest. The Coroner Scott Grim said that he ruled the cause of death as complications from burn injuries and ruled the manner of death an accident.
Hanna was burned on Dec. 6 inside her home on East Brown Street, Grim said.
Lesson is obvious and heartfelt as Carol very well could be someone's mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. It is also a sad and tragic loss.
I will go out on a limb here and assume that if she was on oxygen, she was already suffering from a smoking related illness and yet still unable to stop. How powerful is nicotine and it's addiction? People willingly put their lives in danger on multiple levels. First, there's the cancer and emphysema but now once you have that you continue to smoke? This is no different that heroin or alcoholism.
There is the possibility of reclaiming control though. It is a struggle but people do it and survive. They go on to live a much longer fruitful life.
If you smoke, stop now. You are robbing yourself and your family of precious time on this planet. If you have a loved one like Carol. Help them to stop. All death related to smoking is tragic. Tragedy by definition is always avoidable, meaning, it didn't have to happen that way. Choose life and help others do the same. No one needs to suffer that way. Ever.
