Teen Tells How Smoking Electronic Cigarettes Damaged His Health

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

A student who started smoking e-cigarettes at age 16 now claims to have lungs as "a 70-year-old man." The young athlete now says he has difficulty climbing stairs and was hospitalized after suffering severe lung damage from vaping. Adam Hergenreder from Illinois told his story to CNN in hopes of helping other young people.

After several days of nausea and vomiting, Adam was hospitalized in August, where doctors told him how damaged his lungs were. His doctor warned that if his mother had not taken him to the hospital, in two or three days his breathing could have worsened to the point of cost him his life.

His mother Polly described him as a healthy young man and admits that seeing his 18-year-old son suffering from this disease is "a father's worst nightmare." When the young man started using electronic cigarettes, he thought that they were less harmful to health than regular cigarettes and also “taste good”.

Adam smoked the electronic cigarette several times during the day, his mother told CNN. "If I had known [the damage] that this was going to do to my body, I would never have touched it but I didn't know," Adam assured CNN.

President Donald Trump is evaluating banning the sale of flavored products for electronic cigarettes. After reporting some 6 deaths in the United States from a lung disease linked to vaping, Trump announced that he will put a heavy hand on the sale of these products so attractive to young people.