Teenager blames vaping after the collapse of his lungs

"I really felt like having a heart attack," said Chance Ammirata, 18, who described the sensation when her medical emergency began about three weeks ago.

"I would say that my chest is as if it is crumbling and tightening and I can not breathe."

Urologists told him that his right lung had holes and collapsed.

"I just panicked – they said:" Your lung has collapsed, you have to go to surgery now. "

His posts on Instagram include the tube of doctors put in his chest.

Two days later, a surgeon operated to repair the hole in his lung. His surgeon told CBS News that Ammirata's lungs were inflamed, which could have come from something that he had inhaled.

Ammirata, who had never been a traditional smoker, said that he had started using Juul electronic cigarettes a year and a half ago, at the age of 16. He now thinks that Juuls was injured in the lungs.

So he launched a social media campaign (#LungLove) to get others to get rid of their Juuls. Thousands of messages have poured in over the last few weeks.

A message was saying, "You've inspired me to stop, as well as many other teens.I have been vapeing for about 2 years now and I've finally decided to stop."

"I did not know I could join people from around the world," Ammirata told CBS This Morning, consumer researcher Anna Werner. It really touches my heart. "

Doctors told CBS News that it was possible that Ammirata's vaping had contributed to her lung contracting, causing the lungs to collapse.

Juul refused to comment on his case.

But across the country, the CDC and state health services are now investigating something else: what the CDC calls "94 possible cases of serious pulmonary disease associated with vaping" in 14 states from June 28 to August 15 of this year. year. It is not known which brand or product the individuals used or which substance they inhaled.

Dr. Emily Chapman, Chief Physician for Minnesota Children's Hospital, said her doctors treated four boys and girls aged 16 to 18 with acute lung injury.

"They do not correspond to anything else we had previously worked on [or] heard about lung disease that is more typical in teenagers, "said Chapman.

"So, do you basically see a motive?" asked Werner.

"A pattern that is different from what we've seen before, yes, it affects all the lungs, so on the chest X-ray, everything seems abnormal in all the lungs."

In the example below, the image on the left shows a radiograph of a normal lung in a sectional view. To the right, we see the same sectional view of a patient in Hawaii whose doctor stated that he was suffering from the same type of acute lung injury associated with a vaping.

Chapman said his patients were rapidly declining in just one week: "They're going from healthy teenagers to a life-threatening situation."

Chance Ammirata said that his experience scared him, but that his response was inspiring.

"If I could have such an effect on the world, I think I would see it again just to help as many people as possible," he said.

While Juul declined to comment on Ammirata's case, the company said it was monitoring information about other generalized lung lesions.