You see a TON of people vaping everywhere these days, especially younger folks. But it seems like the jury is still out on how harmful e-cigarettes really are. An 18-year-old young man named Chance Ammirata learned this the hard way.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz1IkonBvnz/
Ammirata started vaping when he was 16, and 18 months into his new habit, he started experiencing awful chest pains. He couldn’t even sleep on his left side because it was so painful. One day when he was bowling with friends, Ammirata’s friend made him laugh and his chest hurt so bad he felt like he was having a heart attack.
Ammirata was rushed to the hospital. He said, “Seven surgeons came in, and it’s scary when you see seven surgeons come in, you think they’re going to tell you you have like five days to live.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B01BufahqQB/
Ammirata was informed that doctors had found black spots and a hole in his lung. His collapsed lung was reinflated, and doctors told him that whatever he was smoking caused the black spots. Ammirata has never smoked cigarettes, so he knew that the Juul he had been smoking for a year-and-a-half was the culprit.
Ammirata admits that he never thought his e-cigarette could be so dangerous. He said, “Everyone was doing it,” Chance said, “and the problem was no one was saying they were addicted, just using it occasionally when they were stressed, so it was different from a cigarette.”
The young man wants to use his incident to highlight the dangers of vaping for other people who may be unaware that there are potentially serious side effects. Ammirata said,
“This whole experience is absolutely insane and life changing. I came into this experience completely negative, mad at the world, and scared of how things were gonna turn out after my lung collapsed. But I decided to take this negative and completely find another meaning. I decided that spreading my story could help others not have to go through the same thing as me.”
https://twitter.com/Chanceammirata/status/1158204231989571590
Ammirata added,
“Juul is really manipulating it like it’s OK, and it’s not and there’s not enough evidence, but I feel like it’s my responsibility as a victim to let people know it isn’t safe. Even if they said I could smoke again, I would never pick up a Juul or anything that has smoke, I’m never going to pick up again.”
