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Madison Burgess
A 24-year-old man who's been vaping for nearly a decade has a stark warning for other users after his lung sudden collapsed.
It's no secret that vaping has significantly increased in popularity in recent years with more and more people swapping them into their routines in place of traditional cigarettes.
And while experts still consider vaping as better for us than opting for a pack of cigs, it still doesn't come without its own horror health stories.
One TikToker who frequently vaped recently recalled how he suffered a ‘minor’ heart attack, known as an anterior myocardial infarction, and his ‘whole body was fighting to stay alive’.
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And now, someone else has sworn off the habit for good after experiencing a terrifying sudden lung collapse while he was out getting food with his girlfriend.
Raymond Dehn, 24, from Buffalo, New York, had been vaping since the age of 15 after sneaking devices from a local shop that didn’t check IDs.
Over time, vaping became a habit of his and in recent years, Raymond also started using THC pens.
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While out with his partner on September 13, he suddenly felt a 'searing pain' between his shoulder blades, which was so bad he had to 'hold back his screams'.
The pain intensified until Raymond passed out in the middle of the mall and an ambulance rushed him to hospital.
He said: "I remember taking a hit on my vape and my THC pen in the car and coughing, which isn't abnormal.
"But then this searing pain hit both my shoulder blades and would just not go away. I tried to power through and we started to walk back to the mall, but the pain grew so rapidly."
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After waiting for hours in the hospital room while nurses tried to keep him conscious, Raymond was given an x-ray, which revealed that his lung had collapsed.
He said: "The doctor came into the room and told me that I'd suffered a spontaneous pneumothorax. I was honestly so shocked.
"It was so scary to think I suddenly had a broken lung, especially being so young and healthy."
He added: "The doctor wasn't able to provide a specific cause of the collapse. But she did say that she'd seen three or four young people come into the hospital over the past six months with the same thing.
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"The only common denominator between all of us was that we vaped."
According to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Aaspontaneous pneumothorax is the sudden onset of a collapsed lung without any apparent cause, such as a traumatic injury to the chest or a known lung disease.
Raymond spent four nights in hospital with a tube inserted into his chest to slowly re-inflate his lung.
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This shocking experience has left the 24-year-old both physically and mentally fraught, as he deals with daily paranoia of his lung collapsing again.
He said: “Every few minutes I get this overwhelming fear it’ll happen again. The whole experience is sticking with me in a really big way."
Raymond warned: "It's why I want to advocate so strongly for other young people to be aware.
"I've been using ZYN nicotine pouches ever since and have switched to edibles for whenever I want some THC.
"I'm taking this as my wake up call and taking it seriously."