Factory worker who vaped ‘every 10 seconds’ suffered catastrophic injury… ‘never thought it’d happen to me’
A Texas factory worker who vaped ‘every 10 seconds’ claims a catastrophic injury was the wake-up call he needed to finally quit for good.
Hudson Williams first made the switch from smoking cigarettes for a year to vaping in 2019 because it ‘tasted better.’
But six years after becoming addicted to disposable e-cigarettes, the 23-year-old was hospitalized in August after experiencing heartburn that escalated to sharp chest pains.
‘Within about 15 minutes it felt as if somebody had shot me in the chest with a shotgun,’ he said.
Williams was rushed to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with a partially collapsed lung, which occurs when air leaks into the chest cavity and puts pressure on the lung.
The thousands of potentially cancer-causing chemicals in vapes eat away at lung tissue and cause small, air-filled sacs called blebs to rupture, causing lungs to collapse.
Left untreated, this can lead to trouble breathing and infections in the chest cavity.
Williams admitted he had seen posts online warning him of the potential dangers linked to vaping, including permanent lung damage, high blood pressure and lung cancer, though he ‘didn’t think it would happen to him.’
Hudson Williams (pictured here), 23, suffered a partially collapsed lung after he had become so addicted to vaping he was doing it ‘every 10 seconds’
His warning comes as roughly six percent of US adults, or about 17million, report vaping regularly.
The highest rates are seen in young adults aged 18 to 24, with more than 15 percent in that group reporting regular use.
Among children, about 1.6 million middle and high school students still vape, though usage has declined since its peak in 2019.
Williams said: ‘I’m pretty lucky because some people have a full collapse, or even both lungs collapse.
‘The doctors said that there was a 100 percent chance that this had been caused by vaping and they also told me that it could happen again, even if I don’t vape.
‘It was scary. I definitely regretted the fact that I’d vaped.’
Vaping has long been touted as a safer alternative to smoking, which is proven to cause nine in 10 cases of lung cancer, America’s deadliest form of the disease.
However, a growing body of research has found the habit could be linked to other long-term harms, including collapsed lungs.
Pictured above is the x-ray scan showing Williams’ left lung partially collapsed, which doctors said was ‘100 percent’ caused by vaping
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.
E-cigarettes 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.
Williams struggled to breathe as pain ‘radiated around my rotator cuff, my collar bone, my heart, the middle of the chest, my neck, my earlobe, the bottom of my lung and my back.’
At the hospital, doctors told him his lung had collapsed by 10 percent, which is considered a minor collapse.
Williams is pictured here in the hospital. He recovered with pain medication and oxygen therapy, though doctors warned his lung could collapse again due to lasting damage
Pain medication and supplemental oxygen, along with an overnight hospital stay, helped him make a full recovery, though doctors warned his lung could collapse again even if he quit vaping due to the long-term damage already done.
Williams said: ‘I quit vaping as soon as this happened. It was 100% the wake-up call that I needed to quit for good.
‘I would say to anyone don’t vape, it’s not cool. It’s hard to quit and it’s a lot easier said than done.
‘It’s a nasty habit and it’s hard to get out of, but it’s definitely possible.’
