Ann

Does your teenager vape? Nicotine maybe? THC? If you said no, how sure are you?

Well today’s episode is the first in a series on vaping and you’re going to hear from 21-year-old Daniel Ament who at 16 had a double lung transplant due to irreparable damage caused by vaping.

I want your teenager to listen to this episode too. Not necessarily as a scare tactic but as a bit of a wake-up call and to hear from someone close to their age who wishes he’d never see a vape and who now speaks to school audiences about his ordeal. Stay with me because Daniel has a great message for them and some incredibly insightful advice for you.

This is Speaking of Teens, the podcast that helps parents who’re struggling to find peace and connection with their teens. My name is Ann Coleman, I’m an attorney turned parent educator and a mom who’s been there. And I’m on a mission to help you build a stronger relationship and decrease the conflict with your kid so you can help them grow into the young adult they’re meant to be.

By the end of today’s episode, you’ll understand how teens who never intend on vaping, start, how easy it is to become addicted, how you may never know it, and how hard it is for them to quit.

I started out by asking Daniel to take us back to 2019, the summer between his sophomore and junior year of high school.

 

Daniel

So I was mostly using nicotine. Juul was the main brand at the time that everyone was using. And I did try THC vapes probably around like 15 times at most, but majority of my use was nicotine and I was just vaping as a social thing. I only owned my own vape for around two weeks. So I was mostly like for the I say nine months, but a lot of that just consisted of like maybe three times a week hitting it for like five minutes with my friends in their car as we're driving to lunch or on the weekend if I was at a party or something. And that was the majority of my use for like half of the that time period. And then once school ended and summer started, the frequency went up because I was just in a place where I could more and like everyone around me had one. So I like when I would drive people around, I'd be like, hey, can I hit your vape? Because like instead of having them pay for gas money, like they would have this. So that's kind of like people will just let me hit their vape.

And then so I ended up finding one that someone had just dropped in my car and then that was the jewel, like the body of the jewel. And then I just bought pods for that for around two weeks or three weeks. So I think I'd only bought, I bought like 15 pods in total. So that's three packs, which is five, um, five pods a pack, uh, or four, four or five.

Um, so I just had those for whatever amount of time was, and then I realized, okay, I'm getting addicted now, um, because I had the pods with me. So then I just, I ended up actually throwing that jewel into the lake because I live right next to a lake. Cause I just like, I don't want to get addicted to it. I just want to do it with my friends. Cause, and I literally had the thought if anything like is dangerous, everyone adversities, it's like safer than smoking and it's safe, like nothing will happen.

And, uh, I was like, oh, it'll just happen to someone else. Like, and I would know I'm and also I like, I would be able to heal, like, you know, it's not going to happen to any extent because I'm not, I'm doing it less than every single person I know.

So that was my thought process as a 16-year-old. Um, and yeah, so I had that for a few weeks, got rid of it. And then at that time, probably just on the weekends again. Um, and then a little bit more during the days, if I was doing something that allowed me to be around people with it, just hit it a few times, but I would, I remember consciously stopping my myself from hitting it too much when I was around them, because if I hit it too much, then the next day when I hit it I wouldn't feel a buzz from it and I would notice so I'm getting a tolerance let me back off and just so I can always get this feeling that I'm actually using it for.

 

Daniel

Then in July was like around where I was like, okay, well, when I threw my jewel body into the lake, that's when I was like, okay, well, I'm gonna quit by the time school comes around. So I'm just not continuing this addiction. So I think like maybe the last time I'd hit one was like a week before I got sick or two weeks before I got sick. Cause I was like, I was just hanging out. I remember it was like a weekend.

Yeah, it was just a weekend hang out before school. I remember like school was coming. It was like the last weekend or the second to last weekend before school was coming. And then that was probably the last time I had hit one.

So I was vaping for around nine months, I think. I mean, that's just kind of the average timeframe I settled on when I started telling my story because that's what I could remember. But so it was around like my 16th birthday in November, probably when I started vaping, and then I stopped in like the next August.

 

Daniel

I was a sophomore in high school. Well, so I was going into junior year. So it happened like the, I went to school one day and then that I was feeling really sick that day. I think I'd already, it'd been like three or four days since I started feeling some sort of symptoms. And then I felt really fatigued and I had a fever in school. And it was the first day of school and I just didn't want to miss orientation in all the classes. And then I ended up going to the doctor and then the next, they sent me to get an X-ray and nothing was showing up at the time because it, apparently it takes a while or something like that. Um, but for whatever reason they weren't like, they were just saying, Oh, nothing's wrong. It's just like a normal sickness. But if you get short of breath, go to the ER. And then the next day, I was short of breath and then I went to the ER. Um, and that's when I, yeah, then I kind of lost my memory. I only remember being in the ER just kind of talking to the doctors, talking to the nurses. And then after the doctor, tells me like, Oh, yeah, nothing like your actually looks fine. Nothing looks wrong. I think your short of breath is just caused by anxiety. And then that was the last thing he said. And then I remember like him walking out the room. My parents just sitting like both in the room on the left wall in front of me, like just a few feet in front of me. And I think I was just like on my phone probably. And then I just woke up.

 

Ann

Daniel woke up 55 days later.

What he doesn’t remember, but what I’m certain his parents remember, is that he nearly died. He was hooked up to a life support device known as ECMO which stands for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation – meaning, it takes over for the heart and lungs and keeps the body’s blood supply pumping and oxygenating. The problem was – it didn’t work. The doctors discovered that his lungs had been so badly damaged that he wouldn’t survive without new ones.

The doctors scrambled frantically trying to figure out how to transport him to another facility for the transplant because the ambulances were not equipped with the ECMO machines, and he would have died within minutes if not continuously hooked up to one. Luckily the found a portable ECMO to take in the ambulance but it was a huge risk just to try and switch him back and forth the portable machine and then back to the other facility’s device. Everything about this was risky.

 

Daniel

I needed the transplant because it was getting worse and worse very quickly at the end stage of things. But I really don't remember a lot. Well, I don't remember anything from that time period. So a lot of the stuff is a little bit fuzzy because I just know what other people have told me.

Well, yeah, if I didn't get the transplant, that's the reason I got the transplant so quickly is because all the things they look at for when evaluating if someone needs a transplant, well, is there any other option to keep them alive? If you get a transplant, you're doing pretty bad. And the reason I shot up on the list was because I was doing so bad that I would die no matter what, likely within hours, I believe, hours, you're like a day or two days, is what I remember being told.

And another thing is that when they're evaluating, they look at, does this person have a high risk to go back to doing what got them sick or if it's a genetic disease? Obviously they're going to be like higher, but because I didn't have a high risk of going back, usually they don't give transplants to smokers. So I was pretty lucky that, you know, this was the first thing that happened. If I had known that this was possibly going to end up doing something like that, some of the damage that it did, and I was continually doing it, then they just say, well, you knew that…transplant, we need to give these to the genetic disease, like, I forget what it's called, but yeah, they get priority. But because I also was very young and had a high outlook, and like 16-year-old athlete, I was 155 pounds, I was a swimmer, a varsity swimmer, I was a cross-country runner, and then I also sailed competitively because we have a lake and it's connected the Detroit River.

And I did pretty well in that. So yeah, because I was very athletic and had a high chance to come out of this doing well and live the longest and have a good quality of life. I shot up on the list and I was able to get a transplant luckily.

 

Ann

Thankfully the double lung transplant Daniel had was successful, and as his family wrote at the time, "We are forever grateful to the organ donor and their compassionate family for making the selfless decision to donate the gift of life."

In an article from NBC News Dr. Lisa Allensbach, director of the lung transplant program at Henry Ford Health System, where Daniel had his surgery – she said, "We’re hopeful given his youth and progress that happens in the future that he will be alive and well for a long time,"

 

Daniel

I know people have gotten sick everywhere since then. The frequency has definitely gone down. So I mean, maybe whatever was causing those very drastic illnesses and quick killing illnesses at the beginning are hopefully not out there. But I still see on the statistics, you see thousands of people get sick from vaping every year.

Oh yeah, and the long term aspects of it, obviously, nicotine addiction. That's mostly what I talk about when I do school speeches because, I mean, if you look at, obviously, not many people now are getting lung transplants due to vaping because not as many people are getting sick. So people are gonna look at that and say, well, it's not gonna happen to me. Whatever was out there is gone now. But it is important to think about the aspects of addiction and also the, you don't know what it's doing to you long term. And I literally every, recently that's been vaping for at least probably four or five years and they were like how do I quit I feel like I can't like I'm losing stamina I feel like I when I'm walking I get out of breath when I walk up the stairs I get out of breath so they are seeing that happen to themselves and they are so dependent on the nicotine that they're having trouble quitting so

 

Ann

Having this experience now and then being able to look back, I think it's so profound that you can go talk to young people and that they can actually see you in the face and know you're a real person and know this happened to you and that it could happen to them. And the reason I think that it still could very easily happen is because of all the vapes that are coming in that are bootlegged from overseas and...

 

Daniel

Yeah, I mean, if you see, I've seen videos of the disposable vapes being manufactured in China. Most of these brands are coming from China. I believe, I'm not going to say specific names because I'm not sure on it, but I know a lot of the popular brands right now are just coming in from China. The factories are not in the best conditions in terms of sanitary conditions. The actual materials used are very cheap, obviously, because they're trying to make a profit. And I mean, there's just a bunch of people out there profiting off of young people becoming lifelong addicted to a substance that their body does not need.

And they're becoming slaves to themselves because they're losing self-discipline because they can't, if you say you're going to do something and then you don't over time, you psyche and then having that happen at such a young age, just messing with their dopamine receptors. I mean, there's studies showing with rats and nicotine that certain things happen that decrease motivation as well as can have lifelong changes and certain I forget what it's called, but there's certain parts of the brain that change permanently and that those parts of the brain have to do with cognitive function.

So your decision making for the rest of your life is kind of becoming impaired. And I mean, if you're living from the age of 15, as soon as you kind of like start to like kind of get in the groove of things with an addiction. You don't know what life is like without that. As you're going into adulthood, it's gonna be really a lot harder to quit. And your brain is like, imagine your brain is dependent on that for all those years, and then you just have to stop and keep going in adult life and you don't have that now. It is going to be hard to quit.

 

 

 

But I mean, it's definitely doing some sort of damage, even if it's not to the extent of a lung transplant, because I see my friends just talking to me.

I'm not hanging out with people that are vaping all the time, but friends that I've had, um, and acquaintances that asked me how to quit because I try to help them. Um, I mean, I'm in college right now, so any social function I go to, there's a lot of people vaping there. So, I mean, that's led to me kind of staying away from that scene. Um, and I try to talk to, Oh, no, not, not because of that, just because I'm scared of the secondhand smoke. Um,

 

Ann

Yeah. Not that you would be even tempted to vape, I'm sure though, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

 

Daniel

So it's a very big thing right now. Still, I would say it's maybe even gotten more popular. I don't know the numbers on that, but it could have, it definitely seems like it. Like, um, when I was in high school, there was definitely a lot of people that were just kind of like, okay, with not vaping. But now I would say at least eight out of nine people are vaping that I'm, I'm seeing out of these functions if I do go to a function. Um, so yeah, that has led to me just kind of staying away from that scene, which does suck.

 

Ann

So after you get out of the hospital, then you, I know you've started talking to other people about this and everything, but your friends that you had been vaping with and people that had been vaping, did you know or notice that it had any effect on whether they continued to vape?

 

Daniel

I mean, instantly the people I was friends with around that time, I mean, a lot of my friends I kind of just lost because it was, I hadn't seen them in months. Then I went not, I couldn't go back to school. Um, and there obviously wasn't like a way for me to go hang out with people. Uh, like I, I maybe had like, uh, like four or five friends that kind of stuck with me and came to my house and stuff like that. But the people I would see at school, you know, lose a lot of those.

Um, so most people that were close to me, they stopped. Um, but then a few people that are close to me still are, have been addicted and then they had to quit later. And then I still get people that are like, even if the one kid close to me quits, then all their friends around them are vaping. Like then you're talking, I'm talking to them, trying to get them to quit. And a lot of the time they're just like, yeah, I know it's really bad for me. It's a horrible habit. I need to quit. And then they just never prioritize it. So it is, that's why I try to talk to the younger kids.

 

Ann

Yeah. Daniel, I swear. Yes, before they start, right? Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. Yeah.

 

Daniel

Yeah. But that's the big thing. They don't, no one thinks they're going to need a transplant and almost die from vaping. And the small, they're not small changes that happen to them because they are degrading their ability to walk upstairs. But to them, it's small enough compared to the benefit they're gaining from the nicotine, which I mean, it's not a benefit, but in their minds, it probably feels like one.

 

Ann

Yeah. Well, and I guess, I mean, what I understand about it, it seems to me that it's more of a social thing than it is, you know, when you first start, at least. I mean, you're starting it because people are doing it and you can hang out and do it, right? I mean, it's more social than going, I really want that nicotine thing that everybody's doing, isn't it?

 

Daniel

Well, yeah, it starts out, you don't even know what nicotine is when you first take a hit of it, but then you feel it. Um, and then you kind of get lightheaded and then you almost fall over and then, um, then next week you're not like falling over anymore and it feels good. And then, um, you're doing it on social occasions. And my vaping was an entirety outside of that two weeks when I had the jewel. Um, I never even brought one inside of my house. I think I brought that one inside of my house for, um, that two weeks, probably. But other than that two weeks, I didn't even have one in my room. So I'd be going constantly like, you know, 24 hours, two days, three days without vaping. Um,

 

Daniel

And I would do that on purpose. Yeah. I didn't feel any sort of draw to it outside of when I was with people. Um, and then when I did start to get dependent on it from whatever frequency I was hitting it in those two weeks, then I got rid of it. So, but yeah, for me, it was totally social.

 

Ann

Yeah, so your parents, did they have any idea that you were vaping at the time? No.

 

Daniel

No, I mean, how would they? I wasn't even bringing one in the house most of the days.

 

Ann

Tell the parents then, what do you think your parents could have looked for or could they have possibly known that you were doing this? Is there any way they could have known or is there anything they could have done?

Daniel

I mean, you know, I'm not an expert on parenting, but I would just say, try to have an.

 

Ann

Yeah.

 

Daniel

a way of a relationship with your kid that they're not going to try to hide something from you in the first place. Because if they want to hide it, they can and they will. So just having that, you know, open dialogue, making sure they're not going to think they're going to be in trouble and making them think, oh, there's going to be this huge consequence because really you want what's best for them. So you need to be helping them quit. If they do have a nicotine addiction, you really need to help them quit because it's not something to just quit cold turkey or make up their own plan and try and quit by themselves. They're likely going to need some, like I would probably say take them to their pediatrician, see if they can get prescribed some sort of nicotine substitute so they're not at least damaging their lungs in the process.

Yeah, and that's what I would say. But it's pretty, yeah. I think it's really about having a relationship where your kid is not trying to hide things from you. And I mean, I feel like you can kind of, yeah, I mean, and if you need help, if they need help, you need to give it to them and make sure it's a completely like non-abrasive on your part and like very easy for them to go through, if that makes sense.

 

Ann

That is such a good point, Daniel, because yes. Yeah, or if they need help. Yes, yes, it makes total sense. I mean, I think that's what, you know, I've seen a lot of parents say like online and in Facebook groups, parenting groups and stuff like that. You know, I just found out my kid is vaping. I've got to do something, you know, what am I gonna do? I need to, what do I need to take away? Do I need to ground him? Do I need to do this? But to your point, you need to help him, yeah.

Daniel

I mean, that's not going to do anything. If they're addicted to nicotine and you ground them and take their phone away, they're still addicted to nicotine unless you kept them locked up in a room for three weeks. And then, you know, they're going to be pretty mad at you for that and they're probably going to have some desire to go against the grain and go start vaping again, just because you locked them in the room for three weeks. But I mean, three weeks is, the reason I say three weeks is that's generally the period where it becomes very, a lot easier.

Once you're like around two to three days or four days is when the nicotine is like out of your body. And then like seven days is when you're kind of feeling it still, like the cravings kind of get pretty high, but then two to three weeks out, that's when it becomes a lot easier. So the first week or two are the hardest to quit, but then after that it gets a lot easier to quit.

And also you're going to need a lot more mental power to not just take another puff of that. So switching to a form like gum, you can kind of ration it out. You know, okay, I have this many pieces for the day. And then in five days, I'm going to have this many pieces and a half. And then you kind of wean that down. And then it's going to be a lot less resistance on whoever is quitting once they get to that like 0.5 milligrams, maybe even two milligrams. It's a lot less resistance to just say, okay, I'm done. Like I don't really need this today. Cause when you're experiencing nicotine withdrawals, you're actually going to feel sick. Like you have a cold or the flu.

So if you don't have a strong will and the discipline built up to do that, you're likely just going to be around your friend at a party and then just take a hit and be like, Oh, I'm quitting. So only let me hit it one time. And then they get drunk and then they hit it all night. And then they just give up because they feel bad about themselves. Cause they just went back on their word.

 

Ann

Right. Well, now that's a good point. So, let's say a kid is going, you know, off the nicotine, off the vape and they're doing the gum or they're doing, you know, whatever it is. And through this three-week period, I mean, as a parent, I'm thinking they don't need to go anywhere and be around their friends. But yeah.

 

Daniel

Yeah, that's one of the biggest issues is, um, I mean, I see people that try to quit for forever and that the reason they can is they'll be off for months and then they'll go back, they'll get drunk and then they'll be around people that are vaping and they can't resist it. Cause I mean, when you're drunk, you don't have, and drinking everyone around my age drinks, I don't drink at all. And everyone around my age, they drink like, you know, at least on the weekends. But I know people that go to the state colleges like out on campus and they drink like every night for their freshman year and they're just hitting the vapes like a pacifier like they're just stuck to it.

 

Yeah. I mean, yeah, it sucks because I'm, I mean, yeah, the hardest part is just that even when they do quit, they're going to be the outlier that I mean, that's just the fact it sucks to say, but like it's, it's a majority of people around my age that are vaping that I find if they're like in the college scene or like, so if they have like a standard average social life or someone that's in college and even just people I meet, like when I'm going to like a concert, let's say, you see like, I would say at least like 80% of people are like doing some sort of smoking or vaping. And then obviously drinking, cause that's just standard. But yeah, we're really addicted to a lot of substances.

 

Ann

Is it the same in high school? Yeah.

 

Daniel

I would say in high school, yeah, it's probably about the same, like especially from talking to counselors and stuff. Yeah, most of them estimate around 60 to 80%, if not like 90% have tried it.

Like a year after my transplant, I was at a graduation party and a bunch of parents were coming up to me like, Oh, like this happened. Like, Oh yeah, my kid would never do that. And I'd known them for like three years and they've been vaping for all three years. So it's like, if you like, yeah, I mean, it's very easy to hide because you don't have to hide anything. You don't have to hide anything if you don't have one. And you're not going to notice.

 

Ann

I'm just, you know, sitting here thinking about the parents who, you know, as you say, it's so easy to hide. And so they're not going to know, and they're going to assume that their kid's not vaping, right? So it seems to me that it would be really good if a parent, and again, it's this relationship like you talked about, you know, the kid's gotta trust them to be able to admit to it.

 

Daniel

It needs to be like an alliance instead of a like feeling like they're the enemy in terms of like, because yeah, no one's when you're like, 15 and you know, you think the world's against you anyway. you're not gonna, if your parent like already is reprimanding you, it's like, if you take away their vape that they have, they're just going to go hit their friends and then probably get a new one. But if you help them quit and help them make better decisions for themselves, help them build better lifestyle habits. Um, cause it really is a lifestyle change to quit vaping. Um, because it requires self-discipline. Uh, I mean, yeah, like you kind of I mean, you do become a slave to your own, like body in a sense, because you become dependent on the substance that isn't created in your own body. And it's something that you have to spend money for. So you're kind of just spending money to poison yourself over time. So it is a horrible thing that's happened and just become the norm.

 

Daniel

I think it's a big thing just to focus on healthier lifestyle overall. Like for someone trying to quit, like you, once you like stop drinking and vaping, like you kind of like, you have no craving for it after a certain amount of time, even if you're around the people that are doing it. Because in terms of alcohol, I could drink alcohol. I don't think it's I mean, my doctors recommend against it. But I mean, you could look and say, well, I don't know how long my lifespan is. I maybe have, you know, the average is five years. It's been four years. I'm going to live longer because I'm so young. But I mean, you could have a nihilistic outlook and just say, oh, well, you know, I'm already kind of on limited time. Why not enjoy and drink?

 

Daniel

But once you make the decision to stop doing any sort of substance, you don't need that artificial chemical increases that are making you feel whatever way.

And when you get on that sort of lifestyle, it's going to be a lot easier to just kind of stay in kind of, you'll feel better physically and mentally than all the people around you and be able to get more done. So a big thing is forming goals that are going to need you to be in a good position because like a lot of college kids, they function completely fine because they're young. They can drink all night and then go to class the next day and feel maybe shitty, but they'll still get away with it and still pass and get a degree and go on to work full lives. So it's like, what's the motivation there to stop drinking.

Well, there isn't much unless you have some sort of goal that would be worse that you wouldn't achieve if you stop drinking. So I think it's a lot about like encouraging striving for better things and having big goals that warrant in your mind, logically, like this is not something I want to do because I want to get things done with my life. I want to be productive and have a life that I'm proud of living instead of just increasing dopamine levels with these whatever substances and getting my happiness that way, maybe instead getting your happiness from things that you're actually achieving and, you know, being good members of society that are being productive and feeling proud of what you're doing.

I mean, I would just encourage anyone listening, strive for better things. I know that a lot of people have goals and dreams that they want to achieve and your body is going to function better mentally and physically if you're not addicted to substances. I think a big thing is not becoming a slave to your own mind and it's kind of cheesy to say but that's exactly what I see when I see people that just can't stop doing something even though they want to stop doing something and it's doing harm to their body. So, they're harming the vessel that they have t do anything in this world that we're living in. And there's trading that for whatever short amount of pleasure they're achieving through this chemically induced state. So, what is the point of that? You're not gaining anything from it long term and you're having a good time now, but it's going to cause you issues in the future. And overall, you're just probably not striving for great things if you do. I mean, I can't say that because there are people that have achieved great things that are a few abuse substances, but I would just say you're going to live a better and

 

Ann

Imagine what they can do without them though. I mean, that's the thing. Yeah.

 

Daniel

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. And reach your potential of your body and don't maim yourself just for the sake of some short-term pleasure. And try not to fall in with that crowd that just kind of gets stuck in that. Cause what I really don't want to see is with some people around me that I've seen from high school, kind of what they fall into over the years, like just kind of like not striving for the mediocre because I mean, you can do that easily with substances when you're just, you know, you can drink and that will be your happiness. So you're, so you don't feel the need to strive for other things because you're just always in this state, um, like on the weekends, like it's good enough.

You're just in this middle state. And then people will go their entire lives in this middle state, because it's just so comfortable. We've built as humans a great society to live in that has all the infrastructure we need and all this access that we have. And I just encourage people to like kind of realize like what are the habits I've fallen into that have been allowed by the society that kind of weren't really meant to take part with the way our bodies were developed and evolution. Think about how can I reach the potential that I have reach my dreams because I know everyone has dreams and everyone wants to reach their potential and I Think if you don't have dreams and are trying to strive for something bigger Then that may be a reason why you're trying to substitute With drinking or whatever other substance or vaping and trying to dedicate yourself towards something like that may help immensely In terms of you know getting things done because I know there's a lot of people that are Falling into that like I saw in high school and it's just like where are they going? They don't know where they're going so you know, that's kind of why they just get stuck in this endless loop of just gratification using whatever means we have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ann

There are several wonderful takaways from this conversation with Daniel.

• How very easy it is for teens to vape fairly regularly without parents ever knowing,
• The astonishing number of teens who vape - so many that if don’t vape, they’re going to be the outlier – the one has all the pressure…and
• If they try to quit – it’s that much harder when everyone around you is vaping
• But likely the most important point Daniel made was to have that relationship with your teen so that they can talk to you about vaping (their vaping) and tell you the truth without fear of punishment or just tossing their vape.
  1. You know now that tossing the vape you find, does absolutely nothing to help them stop – if they’re addicted already they’re going to need lots of help to quit and lots of resolve to stay quit
  2. If they’re not addicted, they’re still going to need help to quit because everyone else around them is doing it

So, work on that alliance, as he said, with your teen. Work on that connection (and remember that connection series in currently running on Fridays right here)

Daniel also said, “don’t maim yourself just for the sake of some short-term pleasure.” And he means that quite literally. He has a scar all the way across his chest where they removed his scarred lungs, which were, as one of the surgeons put it, like tire rubber.

He was just hitting the vape with his friends, living life just like everyone else and thinking nothing would ever happen to him – he wasn’t even addicted to it yet. He had stopped. He did it for under a year. He was an athlete in top physical condition with dreams of going to the Naval Academy that have been pushed out of his reach for now.

Daniel was the first person to receive a double lung transplant due to vaping-related lung damage. It’s a title he’d gladly swap for his old life back.

I’ll have a link to Daniel’s website in the Show Notes where you can reach out to him about speaking to your school and donate to his non-profit, Fight4wellness.

In the next episode in the series, I’ll talk about what the CDC and researchers believe caused at least 2,800 other hospitalizations and at least 68 deaths between the summer of 2019 and February 2020, and how that danger has not gone away.

And I’ll discuss the other lung-related illnesses vaping can cause and what to watch out for.

And in the third episode in this series, I’ll be talking with 2 representatives from The Truth Initiative about how to help your teens quit and what’s going on as far as current and future regulations.

So that’s it for Speaking of Teens today, I want to thank you for being here and for taking a minute to spread this episode around to your friends and other teens that may need to hear it.

And if you’d like to continue this conversation and more, you can find me in the Facebook Group – the link is at the very bottom of the show notes.

Until next time, remember, a little change goes a long way.