Featured Image Credit: Kennedy
Topics: Health, Vaping, New Zealand
Callum Jones
A telling photo has shown the damaging impact vaping can have on people, especially teenagers.
At the age of 14, LeeRay King began using disposable vapes, and got to the point where he was 'heavily vaping' between then and the age of 16.
LeeRay, who lives near Wellington, New Zealand, said: "I got kind of peer pressured into vaping.
"I didn't like it at first but then got hooked on it within the first week.
Advert
"I was heavily vaping from 14 to 16. I went through about four disposables in a week. I would vape all day every day."
It was in August 2024 when LeeRay discovered the damage his heavy vaping habit had inflicted on his lungs after he was admitted to hospital following extreme pain in his left side.
Subsequent tests revealed this was caused by a pneumothorax - a condition where air leaks into the space between the lung and the chest wall, causing the lung to collapse.
The teenager's left lung collapsed four more times over the following months, leading surgeons to perform a pleurodesis, a procedure that creates a strong adhesion between the lung and the chest wall to prevent fluid from building up once more.
However, this procedure ultimately failed, so LeeRay underwent another surgery to remove a lining of the chest wall - known as a pleurectomy.
He then had to endure a further procedure in which doctors removed a damaged black chunk of LeeRay's lung, with a shocking photo showing LeeRay's chopped out pieces of lung in a sealed plastic packet, brown and shrivelled.
LeeRay's Mother, Kylee Jope, said: "When we picked it up, LeeRay pulled it out and we were both like 'oh my god'.
"It was the damaged piece of the lung that they had removed. We're actually going to bury it at our house as a native tree. We were shocked.
"I never realised vapes could do this. They advertise it to help give up smoking. You're pretty much intentionally drowning your insides. Seeing my son go through that was horrifying."
Now, the teenager and his mother are warning teenagers about the dangers of vapes.
"I actually went and talked to one of the primary schools near where I live. I don't want them going through what I went through," he said.
"It was a pain that no one at a young age should be going through. I would tell anyone don't do it.
"I'll never touch a vape again."