Man who vaped for 9 years issues terrifying
Raymond Dehn, a resident of Buffalo, New York, started using e-cigarettes at the age of 15. He was able to purchase the products easily, as local stores did not ask him for identification to verify his age.
His vaping habit continued and intensified throughout his teenage years. By the time he was in his late teens, he had also begun using cannabis THC pens, a practice he maintained for almost ten years.
The serious consequences of this decade-long habit emerged suddenly on September 13. While vaping in his car, Dehn experienced an intense and sharp pain in his back.
Approximately one minute after the initial pain, as he was walking inside a shopping mall, he lost consciousness and collapsed. He was rushed to the hospital for emergency medical attention.
At the hospital, an X-ray provided a diagnosis for his severe condition: he had suffered a collapsed lung, a serious and painful medical event.
According to Dehn, the doctors treating him could not pinpoint a single definitive cause for the collapse. However, they observed that they had seen other, similar cases in young patients.
The only consistent factor linking all these patients was a history of vaping. Dehn spent four nights in the hospital with a chest tube inserted to re-inflate his lung. He has now quit vaping and lives with the constant fear of a recurrence, hoping his story will serve as a strong warning to other young people about the potential dangers.
