Teen claims vaping gave him collapsed lung and insides that 'looked like he'd smoked for 30 years'
A teenager says vaping caused his lungs to collapse four times.
Draven Hatfield, from West Virginia, started using vapes when he was 13 years old, believing it was just a 'neat trend'.
While he started out by using box mods, he eventually moved onto disposables, puffing on one every couple of days.
But things took a dark turn when he was raced to the hospital after suffering with chest pains and cramps in October 2021.
Advert
After being checked over by doctors, the construction worker was diagnosed with a collapsed lung and was in hospital for a week.
A few months later, in February 2022, he suffered his fourth collapsed lung, and had to undergo a Bullectomy surgery to remove air pockets from his right lung.
Draven says it was the most painful experience of his life and that the ordeal left its mark.
"It made me realise how dangerous vaping can be," the 19-year-old said.
"From the first time it collapsed I had PTSD because they had to rush and they didn't numb me fully when they put the chest tube in and it was the most painful experience of my life.
"The doctor said that my lungs looked like I'd smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for at least 30 years.
"I was pretty upset. I thought vaping was better than smoking and I was worried about my future. I was very scared."
Draven began vaping after seeing other people his age taking it up.
But he quickly became addicted, going through two to three vapes a week.
"At least once a day I was refilling it, sometimes once every two days," he said.
"I moved onto the disposable vapes and probably used one disposable every two to three days.
"I didn't smoke before I started vaping. During one period I smoked while vaping for probably around a month and a half, and then I quit."
Recalling the first time his lung collapsed, Draven, who was 17 at the time, says he was terrified.
"I was just sitting there one day and then out of nowhere I had really had chest pain and cramps all down my side," he recalled.
"I went home and went to bed and my heart rate dropped really low and I promised my grandmother that I'd go to hospital and it was down to 40, and that's when I found out that my lung had been collapsed.
"I had no idea what it was or what happened, I thought I'd maybe pulled something wrong. I had to have a chest tube for about a week and a half.
"I didn't connect it to the vapes at that point. It took three times of it collapsing before I connected it to the vapes."
He's now warning other teenagers of the dangers of vaping, the consequences of which he still lives with.
"I still feel pain to this day," he said. "On the collapsed side, I hurt pretty bad sometimes and I have scares, I feel like my lung will collapse again but then I realise it's just the pain.
"I'll never touch a vape or smoke again. I'm very positive that vaping has done the damage, my specialist and lung doctor were also positive on that."
Dominic Smithers