My teenage son picked up a dirty habit to ‘look cool’ in front of his friends. He was rushed to hospital with deadly lung condition… now I’m issuing an urgent plea

A Kentucky mom is issuing an urgent warning after her son’s lung collapsed twice from vaping.

Cameron Vann, known as Dodge, picked up vaping from his friends at school to ‘look cool’ two years ago but kept it secret from his mother, Crystal Vann. 

But when 17-year-old Dodge came out of the school bus looking pale and with back pain in September 2025, Vann rushed him to the emergency room, where he underwent a chest x-ray. 

Doctors found that 50 percent of his left lung had collapsed, also called a pneumothorax, which occurs when air gets inside the chest cavity and creates pressure. 

Dodge’s pneumothorax was so advanced that doctors had to surgically insert an 18-inch tube into his chest to get rid of the extra air and allow his lung to re-expand. However, the teen kept vaping without his mother’s knowledge.

That was until January 2026, when Dodge called his mother out of breath and in severe pain.

‘He called me from school the second time and he said, “I’m hurting, but I don’t know if it’s my lung or not.” We went straight to the ER.

‘[The doctors] said he could have died in the lobby.’

Dodge’s lung had collapsed again, and he was forced to undergo a more intense surgery called a pleurodesis, where doctors scraped the lining of his lung and stapled fluid or air-filled blisters called blebs to the top of his lung.

From there, they were able to attach the lung back to the chest wall.  

Vann said: ‘He went through a lot. It was horrible. I thought, “Why him?” I feared he was going to die.

‘His friends tried [vaping] and then he tried it. I don’t like it at all.’

Dodge’s case comes as roughly 6 percent of US adults, about 17 million, reported vaping regularly. 

The highest rates are among young adults aged 18 to 24, with more than 15 percent of that group reporting they were regular users, according to CDC data for 2024. Among children, about 1.6 million middle and high school students vape, though usage has declined since its peak in 2019.

Vaping has also long been touted as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes, which is proven to cause nine in ten cases of lung cancer, America’s deadliest form of the disease.

However, a growing body of research has found vaping could be linked to other long-term harms such as high blood pressure and stroke. 

Earlier this year, doctors writing in a medical journal detailed the case of a New Jersey man who died of aggressive lung cancer, the first case of its kind thought to be directly caused by e-cigarettes. 

Vapes produce an aerosol by heating a liquid that usually contains nicotine, flavorings and a mixture of toxic chemicals.

When inhaled, this vapor can deliver harmful substances deep into the lungs, including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and other volatile organic compounds known to cause cancer.

These substances can damage lung tissue, and over time, this damage can lead to DNA mutations and inflammation, which increase the risk of cancer.

Dodge said he quit vaping ‘cold turkey’ after the second lung collapse but still has lingering pain in his left side that gets worse when he puts on clothes or when he talks.

‘After the surgery the nerves are dead,’ he said. ‘Even putting on a shirt feels awful when touching it. Talking vibrates it sometimes, and it hurts so much. I get stabbing pains in my side and can’t go to school.’

‘I quit cold turkey. I’m not hitting one ever again. I’m trying to stay away from secondhand smoke and everything. I’ve had nightmares about it.’

A GoFundMe page had been set up to help with Dodge’s treatment costs.

Vann said: ‘He’s so little. It hurts in his back, and he does not want to go to sleep because it hurts when he wakes up.

‘He’s such a kind and passionate kid with a big heart for others, so seeing him in pain is incredibly hard for me as his mom. He’s been so brave, but he’s also scared, asking me if his lung might collapse again while he sleeps.’

Vann now encourages other young people to steer clear of vaping and is calling for nationwide sales restrictions.

‘I say ban on all vapes,’ she said. ‘I don’t want another kid going through it. Don’t do it just to be cool.’