Teenager (19) smoke holes in his lungs due to excessive vaping: “A puff every 3 to 5 minutes” | Abroad

Mason Middleton from Florida was 15 years old when he first smoked an e-cigarette, even though it is only legal in the United States from the age of 21. At the height of his addiction, Mason (now 19 years old) was so addicted that he would puff on his e-cigarette every few minutes, smoking up to four capsules a week. “I used my vapes every day. For example, when I was lying in bed, I wanted to take a puff every 3 to 5 minutes.”

Earlier this year, the teenager suffered excruciating pains in his chest, leaving him barely able to stand.

When the teen came home with severe pain in his chest, he tried treating the pain with ibuprofen and returned to work the next day. A few hours later, the teenager could no longer tolerate the pain and decided to go to the hospital.

X-rays at the hospital showed he had a collapsed left lung. Mason is otherwise a healthy boy with a physical job in construction, so the doctors could indicate “no other reason” for the collapsed lung than vaping.

The collapsed lung has created a hole in the lung that allows air to flow between the lung wall and the chest wall, something that is normally not possible.

This prevents the lung from inflating and deflating properly, causing Mason to have difficulty breathing, shooting pain in the chest and a rapid heartbeat.

Mason’s condition is rarely fatal, but doctors say it must be treated quickly to prevent the hole from getting bigger or the oxygen level in the blood from dropping, which can damage internal organs.

The teen now has a tube in his chest to suck out the air between his lung wall and chest wall. This gives his lung enough rest to heal the hole and breathe normally again without the help of a machine.

During his recovery, Mason decided to warn teens about the consequences of vaping on TikTok: “I’m quitting vaping. I never listened to anyone who said vaping is harmful to you, but it is. Don’t go through what I went through, it was extremely painful,” said the teenager.

Mason’s story clearly makes an impression on peers. Many vapers throw away their vapes under the hashtag ‘#freethelungs’.

The legal limit in Florida to smoke and buy vapes is 21, but many young people are able to avoid the ban thanks to unscrupulous sellers and friends who buy the e-cigarettes for them. Mason was also able to obtain his vapes this way at the age of 15.

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