REPRODUCTION/ FACEBOOK
22-year-old American nurse Jonathan Belcher had his lung punctured due to excessive vape use. The story went viral after the young man’s report, which was published on Facebook.
In his post, Belcher said that, on April 26, he woke up with intense pain on the left side of his body. When going to the hospital, the doctors found that the nurse’s left lung had not only collapsed, presenting an air leak in the pleural lung cavity, but also had a hole.
The pain occurred due to the pneumothorax, which generated a bubble and an accumulation of leaked air in the pleural cavity, which increased the pulmonary pressure and prevented the total expansion of the organ during breathing.
According to the MSD Manual, pneumothorax conditions can lead to partial or complete collapse of the lungs and perforation. Reports in the scientific journal Journal of Medical Case Reports have previously associated the occurrence of pneumothorax with the excessive use of electronic cigarettes.
For the young man, doctors attributed the opening in the organ to excessive use of vapes. According to the British tabloid Daily Mail, Jonathan had been consuming electronic cigarettes since he was 17 and smoked the equivalent of 20 regular cigarettes a day.
At the hospital, doctors introduced a tube into Jonathan’s lungs to help the young man breathe. Days later, he underwent surgery, which removed part of the lung that had become necrotic due to lack of oxygen.
On May 9, Belcher was discharged from the hospital and, today, he appeals to other people not to use electronic cigarettes due to his own experience.
