Beloved Epic Gamer Grandma Agnes Dies After Long COPD Battle: Early Warning Signs to Know

Popular and much-loved TikTok personality Gamer Grandma, aka Agnes the coughing lady, died after a long health battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, an official social media post has confirmed. Known for her crunchy voice, Agnes “passed away peacefully” with her daughter, Pauline, by her side. “We watched the strongest woman we know slowly lose her words, and now that she's gone, we are drowning in all the things we never got the chance to say back,” Culsan, Epic Grandma's grandson, wrote in the post. Known to be an avid gamer with more than 3 million followers, Agnes participated in popular games like Minecraft and bingo. Earlier this year, she started updating her fans about her health when she was first admitted to the hospital

for her COPD. Agnes mentioned in one of the posts that Gamer Grandma goes in for regular check-ups at the hospital, but “this time she is quite seriously ill.”

What is COPD?

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a term for certain types of irreversible lung and airway damage that obstruct your airways and make it difficult to breathe. If you get diagnosed with either emphysema or chronic bronchitis, you have COPD. Changes in your lungs and airways in COPD include:

• Loss of elasticity in your airways and air sacs in your lungs (alveoli).
• Inflammation, scarring, fibrosis, and narrowing of your airways.
• Thick mucus in your airways.
• Destruction of the walls between your alveoli. This enlarges them and traps air.

People with COPD often experience exacerbations, or worsening of symptoms, such as severe difficulty breathing, increased mucus production, wheezing, and coughing. You might need to go to the hospital for severe exacerbations. COPD gets progressively worse over time. Flare-ups get more severe and happen more often. This usually takes years or decades, although some people experience worsening more rapidly.

Signs and symptoms of COPD

According to doctors, a few signs and symptoms of COPD include:

• Cough with mucus that you have been battling for a long time - three months or longer at a time for at least two years
• Difficulty taking a deep breath
• Breathlessness, especially when performing daily activities or with mild exertion
• Wheezing or other lung sounds
• Barrel-shaped chest
• Bluish skin, also known as cyanosis

What causes COPD?

Damage to your lungs from SMOKING is the most common cause of COPD. Other causes include:

• Alpha-1 or antitrypsin deficiency, which is a genetic disorder that can lead to lung damage
• Secondhand smoking
• Toxins in the air
• Exposure to dust and fumes from your job or hobbies

Doctors say apart from smoking, which is the biggest risk factor for COPD, there are many other reasons for this condition, which include:

• Being a female
• Being more than 65 years of age
• Exposed to toxins in the air
• Working with chemicals, dust, or fumes
• Having alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
• Many respiratory infections occur during childhood