My vaping addiction caused my lungs to collapse four times – now my insides look like I’ve smoked for decades
A TEEN claimed his lungs collapsed four times because of his vaping addition.
He was told by doctors that looked like he’d smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for more than 30 years.
But it took the teen months to connect his collapsing lungs to his vaping habit.
Draven Hatfield, 19, said he’d picked it up as a 13-year-old, thinking it was a ‘neat trend’.
This was in 2018 and Draven said he started on box mods – e-cigarettes in the shape of a box – before trying disposables three years later.
“When I first started, I’d usually only vape on the weekends and eventually I was vaping every day all the time,” the construction company contractor from Harts, West Virginia, US, recalled.
“At least once a day I was refilling it, sometimes once every two days. I moved onto the disposable vapes and probably used one disposable every two to three days.
The 19-year-old said he didn’t smoke cigarettes before he started vaping – though he did pick up the habit for about a month and half.
Draven’s left lung collapsed for the first time in October 2021 when he was just 17.
He recalled: “I was just sitting there one day and then out of nowhere I had really had chest pain and cramps all down my side.”
Despite the severe pain, Draven didn’t seek help right away.
“I went home and went to bed and my heart rate dropped really low.”
But he dashed to hospital when his heart rate reached 40 beats per minute.
“That’s when I found out that my lung had been collapsed,” he said.
Doctors told Draven he’d suffered spontaneous pneumothorax, which occurs when air is trapped between a lung and the chest wall.
“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,” Draven stated.
The same thing happened a week later and it wasn’t until his other lung collapsed for a third time in December 2021 that he connected it to the vapes.
Draven said: “The third time I was in the middle of hitting a vape and I felt it collapse.
“I just felt a little pop and as I’d been through it I knew what it was. I was breathing differently and then every time I swallowed I had a little pinch in my side.
“The third time I realised it was the vapes and I talked to the specialist and that’s when I decided to try and quit vaping.”
Draven said he used nicotine gum to kick the habit, gradually lowering the dosage and eventually switching to regular gum.
But in February 2022 Draven’s lung collapsed for the fourth time while he was at school and he was forced to have a bullectomy surgery to remove air pockets from his right lung.
“The specialist said that it developed air bubbles on my lungs and they’d burst and would leak air and that would cause my lung to collapse.”
Draven’s condition was similar to that of 20-year-old Abby Flynn, who was diagnosed with incurable ‘popcorn lung’ after becoming ‘attached’ to her vape.
He was also told that his lungs looked like he’d ‘smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for at least 30 years’.
“I was pretty upset,” the 19-year-old remembered.
“I thought vaping was better than smoking and I was worried about my future. I was very scared.”
After his terrifying ordeal, Draven has since recovered but still bears scars and experiences pain to this day.
Aside from a collapsed lung, the teen claims he suffers from PTSD after his first trip to the hospital.
“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.
“It was the most painful experience of my life,” he shared.
He’s now keen to raise awareness of the dangers of the popular vapour smoking devices.
“I don’t think a lot of young people are aware that vaping can be this serious. I’d like more to be aware that there’s implications for vaping.”
Draven said: “I still feel pain to this day. On the collapsed side, I hurt pretty bad sometimes and I have scars.”
“I feel like my lung will collapse again but then I realise it’s just the pain.
“And my lower back hurts quite a bit often now.”
He pledged to never vape again.
“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.”
Last week, The Sun exclusively revealed that Public Health Minister Neil O’Brien will launch a call for evidence before restricting access to highly addictive fruit-flavoured vapes for under-18s in the UK.
Kid-friendly packaging and sweetie-like flavours, from Apple Peach and Cotton Candy Ice to Strawberry Kiwi, could be banned, in a change that cannot come soon enough for parents, teachers and medical professionals.
It comes as cardiologist Jim Liu said vaping could be driving a rise in heart disease among young people.
Experts have also warned that the popular e-cigs can damage your skin and cause premature aging.
There are four surprising signs that could tip parents off that their kid is a secret vaper.